According to Reds.com, Kent Mercker has gone on the 15-day disabled list with elbow inflammation:

The injury is officially listed as left elbow inflammation, and it was enough to force Mercker onto the 15-day disabled list on Sunday. Right-hander Mike Burns was recalled from Triple-A Louisville, and was expected to arrive some time during the game against Philadelphia.

You might remember that Burns started the season in Cincinnati, but was sent down on April 19. You probably don't remember that Michael Gosling took his place on the roster because he was optioned back to Louisville a few hours later to make room for Brian Shackelford. It's not really relevant, I suppose; I just think it's funny.

I hope that Burns is feeling better after his month in Louisville. He left the team with a 7.56 ERA in seven appearances. In Louisville, he sports a 1.84 ERA in nine appearances.

There are some great new photos in the Felipe Lopez human league entry. Many thanks to my Crack Technical Staff for doing the screen captures. Many thanks also to FSNO who featured the tats in a pre-game program.

The AE symbol on his neck, by the way, was designed by his wife back when they were dating. It stands for “Always and Forever.”

It took 12 innings for the Reds to lose to the Phillies on Sunday by a score of 2-1 in the second consecutive unexpected pitchers duel.

Brandon Claussen allowed one run (earned) on four hits and a walk through eight innings. He struck out seven.

Todd Coffey took over in the ninth and allowed zero runs on one hit for the second night in a row. David Weathers pitched the tenth and eleventh, also allowing zero runs one one hit but he issued three walks (one intentional).

Chris Hammond pitched the twelfth and gave up the winning run (earned) on two hits. His ERA stands at 8.44.

The Reds' single run came off a home run by Jason LaRue, sporting his pink breast cancer awareness bat. The two Philly runs came off two separate solo shots by Ryan Howard. Howard is in tight contention with Jimmy Rollins and his damn excellent defense for the honor of being my Least Phavorite Philly.

The loss brings the Reds' record to 23-15 and gives the Reds their first sweep of the bad kind of 2006. Their next official game is Tuesday against the Pirates. Aaron Harang faces Paul Maholm. The Reds play an exhibition game Monday against the Pirates in Cooperstown, New York. Rumor has it that Eric Milton will start.

The Reds lost their first place standing in the NLC with a 2-0 loss to the Phillies on Saturday.

Dave Williams provided a surprisingly strong start, going eight and a third innings allowing just two runs (one earned) on five hits. He didn't walk any and he struck out five to get the loss. Todd Coffey took over for the final two outs, giving up zero runs on one hit.

With two outs in the seventh inning Phillies' Ryan Howard reached base on a fielding error by Quinton McCracken. The next batter, David Bell, knocked in Howard with a double. The error was about as stupid as you've ever seen; the pop-up was in his glove and then just wasn't. It was Dunn-worthy.

It turned out to be a very important error. Without that miscue, Williams takes his shutout into the ninth and who knows what happens. I hope that this game heralds a change in Dave Williams.

Adam Dunn, whose tiny graven image was handed out to the first 40,000 people in attendance, had the opportunity to win the game in the bottom of the ninth when he came up with two outs and Ken Griffey, Jr on third and Felipe Lopez on first, but alas he struck out swinging. He must not have the taste for drama that Jr. does.

The loss brought the Reds' record to 23-14 and loses the series. They would try to avoid the sweep Sunday when Brandon Claussen faced Tom Gordon.

On Tuesday I made the trek out to Cincinnati to attend Baseball 101: Luncheon for Ladies, so this week I thought I'd use the podcast to share some audio from that event.

It was quite a haul out to Cincy; about two and a half hours, so to get there at 11 with room to recover from the wrong turns I invariably make, I had to be out the door at 8:30. It takes about an hour to get ready, so even though I took Tuesday off work, I absolutely did not get to sleep in satisfactorily.

I had my baseball CDs in the car and enjoyed the stylings of Oh Say Can You Sing? and Finding My Way. In case you didn't already realize the level of my geekitude.

Mulling about with the crowd outside the Diamond Club entrance before the doors opened at 11, it was impossible not to notice how out-of-place I was. First of all, most of the women seemed to be there in groups. Second of all, most of the women seemed to be retired. Experience tells me that the retirement-age women-in-groups crowd can be extremely passionate about their sports, but perhaps next year we can get a bit of a youth movement going to balance it out a little.

Episode 12: Baseball 101. (26.7 MB, 38:56)

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