Hanks, Howard pay visit to GABP

07/19/2006
CINCINNATI -- On Wednesday night at Great American Ball Park, actors Tom Hanks and Dennis Miller and director Ron Howard were just three regular guys killing time during a long rain delay.
They just happened to be three guys who have film and television credits that have earned them millions of fans.
In an impromptu gathering with the media in a room adjacent to the press box, the three entertainers talked baseball and worked the room a little, too.
"Will you please stop being the jaded media?" Hanks jokingly bellowed. "You are here to entertain us. It's not the other way around."
The trio and some of their friends recently rented a bus and have been on a tour of some Major League ballparks. They'd been to Baltimore's Camden Yards and Pittsburgh's PNC Park before reaching Cincinnati to watch the Reds play the Mets.
"It was Tommy's idea," said Miller, a comedian and former talk show host and "Saturday Night Live" cast member.
"I turned 50 about 10 days ago," said Hanks, a two-time Oscar winner famous for such films as "Apollo 13," "Forrest Gump" and "Saving Private Ryan." "This was the dream that you have, gosh, all the way back. Wouldn't you love to be able to go to a bunch of ballparks with a bunch of guys? The requisite was you had to be a baseball fan and funny to make it on the bus."
Hanks, Howard and Miller aren't just novice appreciators of baseball. All are longtime fans with plenty of detailed and nostalgic memories.
"I grew up with the Dodgers," said Howard, an Academy Award-winning director responsible for such films as "The Da Vinci Code" and "Apollo 13," and star of the TV show "Happy Days." "I fell in love with them in '63, and Vin Scully taught me everything about baseball. I loved it. All last year, I was out of the country. I missed the entire season. I heard about Tom's deal, and signed up."
Miller grew up in Pittsburgh loving the Pirates, and Roberto Clemente and Bill Mazeroski.
"I remember when Bob Prince used to call games at Crosley [Field]," Miller said. "Somebody would hit a home run, and it was only like 303 feet. He would say, 'It was out over the moon deck and into a pickup truck on I-75 and on its way to Dayton.' "
"I sold peanuts and soda in the Oakland-Alameda Coliseum," Hanks said. "Until, quite frankly, I got robbed a few times too many. It was a money-losing proposition, so I stopped that."
"Tough room out there," Miller said. "Rickey Henderson was not the only one stealing things in Oakland."
Where does the caravan go next? It's not a movie-promotion junket, so there will be no advance billing.
"Should we divulge our top secret? So far we've been under the radar," Hanks said.
"Tom is so important that he's arranged for a St. Louis Browns game," Miller said.

Source: http://cincinnati.reds.mlb.com/

Reds' late rally soaks Mets

07/20/2006
CINCINNATI -- A pair of Hollywood heavyweights were among those who endured a long night at Great American Ball Park on Wednesday.
But though actor Tom Hanks and director Ron Howard were among the 26,300 in attendance, it was the ensemble cast of the Reds' bullpen that provided one of the "tour de force" performances of the summer in a 7-4 win over the Mets.
New York jumped out to a 4-0 lead off Cincinnati starter Aaron Harang by the second inning before a burst of heavy thundershowers rolled through and delayed the game for two hours and 23 minutes.
On the other side of the delay, Harang was out of the game, and six members of the Reds' bullpen came up big, stringing together seven scoreless innings while the lineup chipped away at the deficit. Jason LaRue's two-run double in the eighth provided the go-ahead runs.
"You can't say enough about the way our bullpen pitched tonight," said third baseman Rich Aurilia, whose fifth-inning solo home run tied the game at 4 and extended his hitting streak to 12 games. "They kept them off the board after the second inning, and we had some big defensive plays, too. Any time you do that, you're going to win a lot of ballgames. We beat a good team tonight."
Two enthusiastic thumbs-up also came from manager Jerry Narron.
"The bullpen [was] outstanding," Narron said. "Every one of them."
Coming off back-to-back solid starts, Harang did not look as strong, allowing four earned runs and four hits in just two innings. There was no consideration of bringing him back when play resumed.
"I really did not want to send him back out there after a two-hour delay," Narron said. "There was no way he was going to go back out there. If it had been September, he probably would have gone back out, but not in July."
Following Harang's departure, it was plausible that the game could have gotten out of hand. The Mets entered second in the National League in runs scored. The Reds came in with the league's worst bullpen ERA, at 5.20.
The players didn't buy into the potential typecasting.
"Bullpens go through ups and downs," Mets manager Willie Randolph said. "Just because they've struggled doesn't mean they're going to struggle all the time. They did their job tonight."
Jason Standridge halted the Mets with two scoreless innings. David Weathers followed with the next two, which included working out of a sixth inning in which he allowed three walks. After Kent Mercker's scoreless seventh, Bill Bray gave up a leadoff double and a one-out walk in the eighth.
Todd Coffey (5-4) faced one batter and finished the eighth for the win. Eddie Guardado's perfect ninth earned him his fourth save.
The game ended at 12:28 a.m. ET on Thursday, just a little more than 12 hours before the two teams will meet again to complete the series.
"That lineup has everything," LaRue said of the Mets. "They've got power. They've got speed. They hit and run. They bunt. I was impressed that we went out there and played the game that we did, especially as long a night as it was. It was outstanding to see the bullpen shut that offense down."
Mets starter Steve Trachsel returned after the rain but was knocked out when Cincinnati rallied for three runs in the fourth on an RBI single from Brandon Phillips and a two-run single by pinch-hitter Edwin Encarnacion. Aurilia's homer came against reliever Darren Oliver.
In addition to nearly exhausting his bullpen, Narron needed several pinch-hitters and used all of his position players, too. A reporter told the manager that he looked spent after the game.
"Just a little bit," he replied. "When you start pinch-hitting in the second inning, [you're] trying to figure out ways to get through it to give yourself a chance to win."
They got their chance in the eighth. Scott Hatteberg was on second base with one out when Royce Clayton grounded to shortstop. In a fielder's-choice play, New York's Jose Reyes fired to third base to get Hatteberg, but his throw was not in time.
Swinging on a 3-0 pitch from Duaner Sanchez (5-1), LaRue followed with a two-run double near the left-field foul line. Narron gave LaRue the green light to swing on the 3-0 count.
"I was just looking for a fastball over the plate to just try and get a sacrifice fly," LaRue said. "With the way they were pitching to me, that might be the only pitch that was good to swing at."
Pinch-hitter Javier Valentin added an RBI single for an insurance run.
"It was a team effort tonight," Narron said. "We used everybody -- all the position guys -- and we used everybody in the bullpen except [Gary] Majewski. That's a pretty good feeling when you use everybody to get a win."

Source: http://cincinnati.reds.mlb.com/

Notes: Harang to stay on schedule

07/20/2006
CINCINNATI -- Aaron Harang's short night of two innings in Wednesday's game likely won't prompt manager Jerry Narron to alter the Reds rotation to give the pitcher another start.
Narron said he was "99 percent sure" Harang would stay in his regular spot and make his next start Tuesday at Houston.
"We talked about it," Harang said on Thursday morning. "As far as I know, they're not. It wouldn't work any way we did it."
Harang allowed four earned runs in two innings and threw 51 pitches before a two-hour, 23-minute rain delay halted the game. The bullpen worked seven scoreless innings after the game resumed for a 7-4 victory. The right-hander admitted he lacked his best stuff during the game.
"I really hadn't been sleeping. I've been fighting some allergies," Harang said of his shortest start this season. "I couldn't hit my spots. It was one of those days."
The night wasn't a total loss for Harang, who also worked off a mound in the Reds' indoor batting cage at Great American Ball Park.
"I was throwing during the whole rain delay to stay ready to go in and pitch," Harang said. "Once it got to the two-hour mark, Jerry said, 'That's it.'"
Harang threw 55 more pitches, which moved his pitch count to 106.
"Although the intensity was not as high in the cage," said Harang, who is 10-6 with a 3.72 ERA in 21 starts this season.
Plan B: With the rain delay throwing any regular plans out the window, Narron had several contingencies working throughout Wednesday night. The manager took a slight risk in the eighth by pinch-hitting with Javier Valentin, his only other available catcher with David Ross on the disabled list.
Had starter Jason LaRue been injured, it would have gotten really interesting. Utility man Ryan Freel would have debuted in a new position.
"Freelie would have caught. [Chris] Denorfia said he never caught but would strap it on," Narron said. "We could have done something."
To save pinch-hitters earlier in the game, he looked for opportunities to bat starting pitchers Elizardo Ramirez or Bronson Arroyo. But Cincinnati's ninth spot came up during run-scoring chances.
Had the Reds not taken an eighth-inning lead in Wednesday's game and won it nine innings, the pitching was set up to get through extras.
"If the game would have stayed tied, [Todd] Coffey would have gone back out there for the ninth," Narron said. "[Eddie] Guardado would have pitched the 10th. And [Gary] Majewski would have had to throw as long as he could."
Saturday's scheduled starter, Joe Mays, was also considered available to pitch or pinch-hit.
Red dot special: Freel started in center field on Thursday in place of lefty slugger Ken Griffey Jr., who got a day off following a night game. ... Rich Aurilia shifted from third base and started at first base in place of Scott Hatteberg. It opened up a spot for Edwin Encarnacion to start at third base. ... Wednesday's victory gave the Reds 50 wins for the season. Last season's 50th win did not come until Aug. 8. ... A fan gained illegal entry into Narron's office in the home clubhouse following Wednesday's game. The fan quietly sat down in the manager's office and listened to the postgame press conference and remained after it ended before Narron asked what he was doing there. Security later escorted the unidentified man away without incident.

Source: http://cincinnati.reds.mlb.com/

Missed chances cost Reds dearly

07/20/2006
CINCINNATI -- The final images may not have been the most lasting ones that came out of Thursday's 4-2 Reds loss to the Mets in 10 innings.
A 10th-inning rookie defensive mistake by right fielder Chris Denorfia was costly during another unfortunate outing by reliever Gary Majewski.
But the game never should have gotten to that point.
What really stood out was one missed chance after another by the Reds lineup, which went 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position and left 12 runners on base. It foiled starting pitcher Bronson Arroyo's sixth bid for his 10th victory, despite his strong eight-inning performance where he allowed two earned runs.
"We should have had the game. We did have the game," said second baseman Brandon Phillips, who himself missed capitalizing on a bases-loaded chance in the seventh. "Things happen."
The game wasn't truly lost until the extra inning. Against Majewski (3-3), Mets pinch-hitter Xavier Nady lofted a one-out pop fly to shallow right field. Phillips appeared to have the best chance at making the play, but was called off by a charging Denorfia, who missed the ball off the end of his glove in a diving attempt.
Nady reached second base with a bloop double. He scored the go-ahead run on Endy Chavez's RBI double down the left-field line.
Not wanting to come down publicly on Denorfia, Phillips deferred the matter to Reds manager Jerry Narron's opinion.
"I think everybody knows Brandon had that ball," Narron said. "Dino really thought he had it and took charge of it. It's just an aggressive mistake."
"It's one of those balls where if I don't call for it, I don't know if he's going to get it or not," Denorfia said. "That's how I'm looking at it. I charged pretty hard and definitely took control of it. I just came up a little short."
Carlos Beltran's RBI double off Kent Mercker added another run and ensured the Mets would leave taking two of three in the series. The run was charged to Majewski, who has allowed five earned runs in three appearances since last week's trade to the Reds from the Nationals.
"He's going to do a good job for us," Narron said. "It seems like every outing he's been out there, he's gotten a freaky little play or something. He's going to be fine."
Locked into a duel with crafty Mets lefty Tom Glavine, Arroyo's only runs allowed came on solo homers by Cliff Floyd in the second inning and Carlos Delgado in the fourth that made it 2-0. The right-hander stepped up his intensity after Ryan Freel's two-run, game-tying double in the fifth inning.
At one point, Arroyo retired 12 in a row and 13 of his final 14 batters. He walked off the field pumping his fist after he struck out Beltran, his final batter.
"When we tied the game, I definitely went out there and tried to pitch [with] more max effort," said Arroyo, who is 9-6 with a 2.92 ERA in 21 starts. "I don't do that a lot in the beginning of a game. Once you get to a point in the game when you don't have too many innings left, you have to give everything you got and either hold the lead or hold it where it is."
The Reds did not reward Arroyo's effort. They put the leadoff batter on base in the fifth through ninth innings, but scored no more after the fifth.
The two best chances came with the bases loaded in both the sixth and seventh innings. Batting with two outs, Arroyo dropped a low percentage bunt to the mound, with Glavine easily firing home for the inning-ending force play.
In the seventh, after Glavine issued back-to-back walks that loaded the bases with one out, Scott Hatteberg was called to pinch-hit for Edwin Encarnacion against submarine right-hander Chad Bradford. Hatteberg struck out swinging before Phillips grounded into an inning-ending fielder's choice.
"He's one of the toughest guys in all of baseball to strike out," Narron said of Hatteberg. "That's the real reason I sent him up there for Eddie. Bradford is just a funky right-hander that can be very difficult with right-handed hitters. With one out, I like my chances with Hattie out there. "
"It's a situation where you've got to come through," Hatteberg said. "We had a couple of them that slipped through our fingers."
Symbolic of the kind of day it was for the Reds, Hatteberg struck out in his second at-bat during the ninth against Pedro Feliciano (4-2). It was only the second time all season he struck out twice in a game. There were no chances left when closer Billy Wagner finished the game in the 10th.
"We should have won the game," Narron said. "We just didn't get a hit when we needed it."

Source: http://cincinnati.reds.mlb.com/