CINCINNATI SPORTS LAST WEEK

On Monday, the Reds announced that they would retire the number 13 of Dave Concepcion. Another of the Big Red Machine will be memorialized. The ceremony will be in August.

Tuesday night the Reds opened a three-game series with the Astros in Houston. Bronson Arroyo pitched the opener and gave another quality effort in the 11-2 rout. Arroyo is now 1-0 on the season after five quality starts without a win. Alex Gonzalez and Ken Griffey Jr hit back-to-back homers in the third and Adam Dunn hit a bomb in the sixth.

Wednesday morning, Josh Hamilton was named the National League rookie of the month for April. Lets hope he gets back on the beam.

Wednesday night Kyle Lohse gave up two runs on the first four pitches he threw and only gave up one other run on the night. His performance wasn't enough this night as the Reds could only muster an Adam Dunn home run in a 3-1 loss.

Thursday night, Ken Griffey Jr hit a homer in the opening inning but the Reds fell behind 4-1 on some shoddy fielding. Eric Milton pitched his best game of the year and a few clutch hits put the Reds up 5-4 going into the bottom of the 8th. But, as has happened before, our boys were done in by the relief crew. The Reds lost 7-5.

The Reds came home on Friday night to play the Colorado Rockies and managed to lose 6-5 in eleven innings. So many lost opportunities. Griffey homered again. Matt Belisle was the starter. Of course, the bull pen lost it again. What will we do?

On Saturday, the Reds sent their best to the mound against the Rockies and ended up losing a slugfest, 9-7. Aaron Harang faced off against Aaron Cook, graduate of Hamilton High School, and neither did very well but Cook got the win. Josh Hamilton had four hits and Edwin Encarnacion had his first home run of the year.

On Sunday morning, the annual Flying Pig Marathon was run. Over 15,000 participated. All I can think of was a guy died at the finish line. He was 45, much too old to be out running.

In the afternoon, Arroyo was back on the mound for the Reds and had a two-hitter with one out in the sixth when he lost it all. Today, the bull pen came through. Josh Hamilton hit two home runs and made two great plays in the field. Ryan Freel had his first homer of the year in the 9-3 rout. The Reds ended the week at 14-17, in third place in the division and 7 games behind the Brew Crew.

The Bengals held a workout for all of the draft choices and other free agent hopefuls. Each defensive back found a present in his locker from Chad Johnson. It was his autographed football card in an envelope with a note that said, "This is as close as you'll get to touch me. God bless."