Sunday, April 07, 2002
AP wire notes: Reitsma feels good
By JOE KAY
AP Sports Writer
CINCINNATI — Chris Reitsma wore short sleeves on a 43-degree afternoon and gave up only one run in five innings, a sign that his balky right elbow is much better.
The Cincinnati Reds' fifth starter looked sharp in his first appearance of the season Saturday. He allowed five hits, walked three and threw a wild pitch in Montreal's 5-2 win.
“The elbow's fine,” he said. “No problems. One time, I looked up at the radar gun and it said 82 mph and I thought, 'It must be broken. I felt like that pitch was at least 94 mph.' But the most important thing is to get people out.
“When my elbow is bothering me, the first place it shows up is in my location, but my elbow felt great today.”
The elbow was a concern during spring training. Reitsma had problems getting loose, prompting the club to send him for a magnetic resonance imaging test and a CT scan that found nothing amiss.
Manager Bob Boone decided to go to his bullpen after the fifth, with the score tied at 1. He wanted to be careful with Reitsma, who had thrown 87 pitches.
“He had that elbow thing, so I wasn't going to push him too much past the next inning anyway,” Boone said.
In four of their first five games, the Reds' starters have lasted five or fewer innings. The Reds' rotation pitched the fewest innings in the majors last season.
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FRUSTRATED SULLIVAN: Reliever Scott Sullivan came away lamenting one pitch.
Sullivan got into Saturday's game with two runners aboard, the score tied at 1 and a 2-0 count on Mike Mordecai. Sullivan walked Mordecai, but Peter Bergeron hit into a force out at home. Sullivan then worked Jose Vidro to a 2-2 count.
His next pitch flirted with the corner of the plate, but home plate umpire Dana DeMuth called it ball three. After Sullivan walked Vidro to start a four-run rally, he angrily snapped at the ball with his glove when catcher Jason LaRue threw it back.
“It was just frustration,” Sullivan said. “My job is to come in and calm those situations down. I think I came in with a flame-thrower today.”
The inning quickly degenerated as third baseman Aaron Boone dropped a grounder for an error that let things get out of hand. Sullivan angrily threw his glove against the dugout bench when the inning ended.
Afterward, Sullivan was still thinking about the borderline pitch to Vidro.
“If that pitch goes the other way, then we have two outs and we get the ground ball and Boone doesn't feel like he has to hurry to turn two,” Sullivan said. “That's the beauty of the game of baseball. The game can turn on a couple of inches.”
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SLUMPING SLUGGERS: After five games, the Reds have only three homers — none from Adam Dunn or Ken Griffey Jr., who are expected to provide the bulk of the power.
Dunn's RBI single in the seventh inning was only his second hit of the season. Dunn is 2-for-14 with a pair of singles.
Griffey was 0-for-4, leaving him 4-for-18 overall with three singles and a double.
The Reds' homers have come from Todd Walker, Aaron Boone and Juan Encarnacion, who leads the team with a .368 average.
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ABOUT TIME: The Reds finally played a game in less than three hours, going 2:45 in their loss Saturday.
Their first four games lasted 3:23, 3:40, 3:19 and 3:28. All were completed in nine innings, and none had a weather-related delay.
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AP wire notes: Reitsma feels good
