Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game

Joey Votto.  In his first two at-bats coming off of an inner ear infection, Jo-eh hit two home runs, including a towering 3-run shot in the 2nd to give the Reds the lead.  For his award, Joey wins a case of Molson and a 10 dollar gift card to Tim Hortons.

Key Plays

• Joey Votto his a solo HR off of David Huff in the 1st to give the Reds a 1-0 lead.
• Shin-Soo Choo scored on a Mark DeRosa home run off of Homer Bailey in the 2nd, and Ass-dribble Cabrera singled in two runs to give the Indians a 4-1 lead.
• Not to be outdone, in the bottom of the inning, Ramon Hernandez hit a 2-run HR to cut the lead to one run, and Joey Votto hit his second of the game to give the Reds a 6-4 lead.
• Walks will haunt.  In the 5th, Homer Bailey walked three hitters before Mark DeRosa singled in two runs to tie the game at 6.
• David Weathers gave up a leadoff double in the 8th to Luis Valbuena, who later scored on a groundout given up by Arthur Rhodes.

Other Notes

• Both teams left a lot of runners on base, with the Tribe leaving 9 and the Reds leaving 10.  One can't help but wonder what might have been.
• Joey Votto had a 4 RBI game for the second time this season.  He was one off his career high of 5, which he accomplished once in 2007 and 2008. 
  
• He also had his 3rd career multi-HR game.
• Maybe Willy Taveras needs a day off,  In his last 8 games, his average has dropped from .322 to .279.
• Homer Bailey made his 2009 debut and was less than spectacular.  His line: 4 1/3 IP, 3 H, 6 ER, 6 BB, 3 K.  Maybe he got a little bit of bad luck from the umpire, and maybe it was nerves, but he's gotta be better than that if he expects to stay up here.
• Brandon Phillips looked like he took a grounder off of his throwing hand and messed up his finger.  It was bleeding and it looked like the nail may have came off.  He came out of the game for a pinch hitter the next inning.  He's getting an X-ray on it.  Keep your fingers crossed.
• Dusty set a season-high in double switches tonight with 3.  Between that and BP's injury, Ramon Hernandez was playing 3rd by the end of the night (for the first time ever).  Can you imagine if this would have happened last week with two players out and McDonald on the bench?  I bet Dusty's thanking Walt right now.
• Personally, I only had one gripe with Dusty.  In a 7-6 game with a runner on and one out in the 9th, why bring in Mike Lincoln?  I understand that Weathers would probably be the first choice here, and Burton was already used, and you don't want to bring Fisher in for his ML debut in a high leverage situatoin, but isn't that a pretty good place to use your closer if you're at home?  You won't see a save situation, so why not bring Coco in to get two outs instead of the ticking time bomb Lincoln?  It's a moot point anyway, since Lincoln somehow made it out of the jam, but I'd like to know his reasoning behind the move.
• Over 35,000 fans in the ballpark for tonight's game.  It's a nice number to have, but it should have been higher with everything going on downtown and the Tribe in town on Memorial Day weekend.