Michael Tucker watches Javy Lopez's drive bounce off the Black Monster... (Jeff Swinger photo) | ZOOM |

        If Opening Day was any indication, Black Monster and Co. are going to have a major impact on this home season of baseball.

        “It (Cinergy Field) has a personality now, and that's good,” said Reds third baseman Aaron Boone.

        The Reds lost 10-4 to Atlanta Monday before a sellout crowd of 41,901 at Cinergy Field, but the Reds know it's a long season and that reconfigured Cinergy, with its black, 40-foot high center-field wall, is going to keep them in more games than its going to cost them.

        The Monster kept one drive from the Braves' Javy Lopez in the park, turning what would have been a home run into a double. Later, the 14-foot high padded green wall just to the left of the Monster did the same thing to Lopez.

... Second base umpire Bill Miller (facing camera) originally signalled HR but was overruled by home plate umpire Jim Joyce, who sent Lopez back to second. (Michael E. Keating photo) | ZOOM |

        The soft outfield grass and high walls keep the ball in play and the baserunners on the move.

        The ball was carrying well Monday, not just to left field (witness Dmitri Young's spearing of Rafael Furcal's sacrifice fly in the fifth inning), but also to right field (Young's golf-shot home run in the fourth and Furcal's drive in the first that the Reds' Alex Ochoa made a fine catch for the out).

        But there are kinks to be worked out — infield dirt that plays too hard once its pregame watering dries about midway through the game, and sod that gives way a bit as baserunners make their approach first base — but otherwise “new” Cinergy Field was mostly a hit with the players and fans.

        “I like the field; it feels like a ballpark now,” said Reds shortstop Barry Larkin.

        A bad-hop ground ball to Larkin cost the Reds a double play in the eighth inning and helped the Braves blow open a 5-4 game by scoring four runs.

        This was a bad hop that one wouldn't see on AstroTurf — not in that spot, anyway — but Larkin didn't blame the new field.

        “That's baseball,” he said. “Bad hops are part of the game.”

        The grounds crew had worked through the night after the Reds and Braves had worked out on the field Sunday afternoon. Head groundskeeper Doug Gallant got his only sleep at the park, from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m.

        The crew poured on the water and kept re-dragging the dirt to soften it. It worked for a while — Reds infielders said the field was relatively soft through the first four innings — then dried out again.

        Does the grass need to be longer?

        “No, the grass is fine,” said Reds second baseman Pokey Reese, who won the National League Gold Glove at that position the past two years. “The dirt's what they need to work on. ... They'll get it right. I've played on harder fields.”

        The Black Monster reared its fickle head early.

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        The crowd, already abuzz in the top of the fifth inning of the 1-1 game, was jolted to an even higher level when Lopez launched a deep drive to center field. The ball slammed off the black-painted plywood and Reds center fielder Michael Tucker, who had slipped a bit on the grass as he turned to approach the wall, retrieved it and threw to second base.

        Lopez had stopped at second (he knew the ball was still in play), but second-base umpire Bill Miller had signaled a home run. Lopez was rounding third base and heading for home with the crowd jeering wildly when home-plate umpire Jim Joyce signalled Lopez back to second.

        The grass was integral in the best outfield play of the game, a down-on-one-knee sliding catch by Ochoa of B.J. Surhoff's sinking liner in the second inning.

        “I don't think I would have made that play on AstroTurf,” Ochoa said. “You can't be that aggressive on AstroTurf. On grass, you don't hesitate; you get the jump. You don't have to worry about the ball going way by you.”

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