By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer

CLEVELAND - The Reds, who played with a 24-man roster for the three-game series here, likely will be at 23 today when they play a makeup game in Philadelphia.

PHOTO GALLERY

Photos: Junior hits No. 499

D'Angelo Jimenez left Sunday's 10-8 loss to the Cleveland Indians in the second inning with a strained left oblique muscle.

He's listed as day-to-day, but it's unlikely he'll play today.

"Probably not," Jimenez said. "It's a little sore. I might be able to swing lefty only. But you don't want to rush it."

Jimenez, a switch-hitter, felt the pull when he was taking batting practice as a right-hander in the cage.

"I shut it down," he said. "Then I stretched it real good."

Jimenez aggravated it swinging and missing on a pitch from Cliff Lee.

With Jimenez out of the game and shortstop Barry Larkin in Cincinnati nursing a strained abdominal muscle, the Reds finished the game with two middle infielders - second baseman Ryan Freel and shortstop Felipe Lopez. They could use third basemen Tim Hummel or Brandon Larson at second or short.

But playing short-handed becomes much more difficult today because the designated hitter won't be used.

KEARNS OK: Austin Kearns, on the disabled list with a sore thumb, swung the bat Sunday for the first time in almost over a week.

"It went well," he said. "I think I'm going to take (batting practice today)."

Kearns is eligible to come off the DL Thursday.

DH LARUE: Catcher Jason LaRue was used as the designated hitter Sunday. It was the first time he's been used as a DH in the majors.

"I did it some in minors," he said. "I like it. It keeps you in the lineup."

LaRue went 1-for-4 with a double.

In their six interleague games, the Reds used five different DHs - LaRue, Jacob Cruz, Sean Casey, Ken Griffey Jr. and Adam Dunn.

Cruz was the only one to do it twice.

STAT OF THE DAY: The Reds are 14-2 when Griffey hits a home run.

MEETINGS: The Reds had two meeting notices on a board in the clubhouse Sunday:

Chapel - 11:25.

Team Meeting - 11:45.

"We say our prayers at 11:25 and get buried at 11:45," Casey said.

The Reds knew what the team meeting was about. Miley wanted to re-enforce some fundamentals after a couple of not-so-well played games Friday and Saturday.

SIGNEES: The Reds signed seven more draft picks Sunday, including third-round pick Craig Tatum, a catcher from Mississippi State, and eighth-round pick Gregory Goetz, a left-hander from Bellevue (Wash.) Community College. The Reds have signed 22 of their 50 draft choices, including four top 10 picks.

FARM REPORT: Right-hander David Shafer pitched six innings of no-hit baseball in Single-A Dayton's 4-1 victory over Battle Creek Saturday. Shafer, 22, walked two and struck out four. He improved his record to 5-1 and lowered his ERA to 1.41. Shafer was a 32nd-round pick in the 2001 draft. Saturday's start was only his fourth as a professional. He has allowed only 22 hits and nine walks, striking out 52 in 51 innings.

REDS FACT: Sunday's loss marked the first time Cleveland swept the Reds at Jacobs Field.

Reds statistics

(Through Saturday's game)

BATTERS	AVG	OBA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	CS	E
Casey	.369	.412	236	46	87	22	1	11	43	17	20	1	0	2
Castro	.298	.337	84	11	25	6	1	1	9	5	17	0	0	4
Larkin	.292	.333	195	35	57	8	2	4	23	13	25	2	0	1
Cruz	.273	.365	55	10	15	3	0	2	15	8	19	0	0	0
Dunn	.260	.429	196	41	51	10	0	18	41	55	78	2	0	2
Jimenez	.258	.373	225	32	58	12	2	3	21	41	34	7	5	4
Griffey	.257	.360	218	38	56	14	0	17	48	33	49	1	0	0
Pena	.256	.307	82	8	21	2	1	4	10	5	33	1	0	2
Freel	.237	.346	186	22	44	5	5	1	8	24	31	9	4	7
Larson	.226	.310	62	8	14	4	0	1	7	6	14	0	0	5
LaRue	.213	.327	127	15	27	7	0	3	16	13	37	0	2	6
Kearns	.195	.327	87	10	17	2	1	3	13	16	30	1	1	1
Hummel	.184	.220	38	2	7	2	0	0	4	2	5	0	0	2
Lopez	.147	.147	34	1	5	2	0	0	4	0	14	0	0	3
Valentin	.146	.191	82	7	12	3	0	3	8	5	11	0	0	3
Team Totals	.249	.341	2043	292	509	105	13	71	275	260	489	24	12	44

PITCHERS	W	L	ERA	G	GS	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO
Riedling	4	0	3.03	28	0	0	32.2	26	14	11	2	13	21
Wilson	7	0	3.18	12	12	0	76.1	77	30	27	8	21	43
Matthews	1	0	3.27	13	0	0	11.0	8	5	4	2	6	3
Graves	1	3	3.67	35	0	26	34.1	36	19	14	9	4	22
Jones	4	1	3.89	32	0	1	37.0	28	17	16	2	17	30
Van Poppel	2	2	4.62	13	7	0	50.2	55	26	26	4	10	31
Norton	0	2	4.70	27	0	0	23.0	25	15	12	2	14	15
Acevedo	3	5	5.09	12	12	0	70.2	76	41	40	13	15	59
Lidle	4	5	5.20	13	13	0	83.0	87	49	48	12	18	47
Harang	4	2	5.43	11	11	0	59.2	79	37	36	7	22	44
Reith	2	1	5.63	20	0	0	24.0	26	15	15	4	16	22
Bong	0	1	10.80	1	1	0	3.1	9	9	4	1	3	0
Valentine	0	1	14.54	2	1	0	4.1	7	7	7	2	7	3
Team Totals	34	27	4.79	61	61	27	539.2	591	314	287	74	184	357

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E-mail jfay@enquirer.com