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Cincinnati Reds

If the Reds sweep in a forest...

By C. Trent Rosecrans, CNATI.com Posted August 31, 2009 10:15 PM ET

Usually Reds manager Dusty Baker likes to know everything that's going on on the field - on Monday, he could keep track of everything in the stadium, as the team had its unofficial and official smallest crowds in Great American Ball Park in a day-night doubleheader.

"I could hear everybody today," Baker said. "I saw a guy catch a foul ball and say, 'that hurt like hell.' He caught it."

The announced "paid" attendance for the Reds' 4-3 victory in the first game was 13,051 even if the actual number of people at the ballpark was easily less than 3,000. In the second game - a 6-3 Reds victory -- the announced attendance was 9,087, officially the smallest crowd in the history of crowd in the history of the new stadium, which opened in 2003.

"Everyone can get a T-shirt, everyone can get a foul ball," Baker said. "You've got to commend the people that came out today."

In fact, Baker could have done so personally.

"You could hear everything people were saying," said Darnell McDonald, the hero of the first game. "It's harder to concentrate when it's like that because you can hear everything. When there's a lot of people, you can't hear what anyone says. A game like today, if one person says something, you can hear it."

Those who came to the first game were welcomed back to the second, free of charge, but if it caused any great spike in attendance for the nightcap, it didn't show.

The Reds won the first game in the ninth when McDonald scored on a wild pitch by Jesse Chavez.

The Reds led the entire game in the second game after a three-run first, while Johnny Cueto allowed three hits and one run in five-plus innings in his return from the disabled list. He was pulled after giving up a lead-off homer by Andrew McCutchen in the sixth. He threw 85 pitches in his first action since going on the disabled list with inflammation in his right shoulder on Aug. 20 (it was retroactive to Aug. 15). Cueto picked up the win, to improve to 9-10.

* Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips said he's been playing the last two weeks with a hairline fracture of his left wrist.

"It's really bothered me a lot," Phillips said. "Other teams know, so they're trying to come (inside), so I've been trying to get the head (of the bat) out there. Today I was cheating trying to get the head out and positive things happened."

Phillips didn't start the first game, but went 3-for-4 with two RBIs, two runs and his 19th homer of the season in the second. He did enter the game in the seventh inning of the first game, grounding out in his only at-bat.

He very nearly had two home runs in the second game, but his second homer was overturned in the fifth inning. It was the first use of replay at Great American Ball Park. It took 1 minute and 55 seconds to declare the ball foul.

"I knew it was foul when I hit it," Phillips said. "I was surprised when they called it fair and while I was rounding second, I said 'hell yeah.' But when they reviewed it, I kept my helmet and gloves on, because I knew it was foul."

Phillips singled on the first pitch he saw after the homer was overturned.

Phillips was hit on the wrist in a game against the Nationals earlier this month and said he believes Washington pitcher J.D. Martin hit him on purpose and has Martin's name written in his hat to motivate himself. He also hopes to "get him back in some way." Phillips said he didn't want to start a fight, he'd rather take him deep or hurt him in a game.

* Reds outfielder Jay Bruce said he hit off a pitching machine on Monday and expects to take live batting practice on Tuesday.

Categories: Cincinnati Reds, Featured Stories, News

Tags: Brandon Phillips, Darnell McDonald, Dusty Baker, Pirates, Reds