The Reds' Sean Casey got “punched out” on the newly enforced bottom-of-the-elbows strike in the first inning. He swung at the same pitch five innings later, just before he hit a game-tying three-run home run in the sixth inning.

        After the game, Casey didn't seem convinced the pitch home-plate umpire Jim Joyce had called for strike three really was a strike. But he did what a hitter is supposed to do: he adjusted.

        “If that's going to be a strike, it's going to be tough for the hitters,” Casey said.

        Other than with Casey, there was little evidence from Reds hitters that the new strike zone was strictly in vogue on the first day of the new season.

        But Joyce said he was calling it that way.

        Joyce said Braves pitcher John Burkett was working up in the zone. The Reds' Pete Harnisch, who is known for working up in the zone with his moving fastball, stayed down early and didn't come up until the fourth or fifth inning, Joyce said.

        Barry Larkin said Burkett wasn't working him up in the zone, and Aaron Boone said he swings at the high-strike anyway, so neither noticed a change in the strike zone from last year.

        Burkett even made a comment to Joyce that he noticed the umpire wasn't calling the pitch a strike if it was a couple of inches off the outside corner — a ring-'em-up strike last year.

        Joyce reminded Burkett of the new zone: it's pulled inward to strictly on the corners, but elevated upward about the height of 2 1/2 baseballs from what was being called last year.

        “Strike three (on Casey) was right there,” Joyce said.

        The umpires have said their guide for the top of the zone is the bottom of the hitter's elbows as he strides into the pitch.

        “I think the batters were swinging at more high strikes, but it didn't make for a quicker game,” said Joyce, pointing to his watch: three hours and five minutes' worth of baseball.

        He speculated the reason little or no time was shaved off the average game time from last year is there were 22 hits in the game.

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