CINCINNATI SPORTS LAST WEEK

Monday started off with a bang. Jerry Narron got shot. The guys who threw him under the bus were almost sobbing at the press conference. Pete Mackanin, advanced scout, was called in to make things right. Oh, yeah.

Barry Bonds led the San Francisco Giants into town on Tuesday needing five homers to catch Hank Aaron as the all-time major league leader. Aaron Harang pitched for Cincinnati and threw Bonds a fat 0-2 pitch in the first inning which he deposited into the right field stands. The Reds fought their way back, Harang settled down and Brandon Phillips hit a grand slam in the sixth to win the series opener 7-3.

On Wednesday, the 4th of July, the Reds set off Matt Belisle at the Giants. He was a dud. New manager Mackanin didn't give him much rope. He was out in the fifth inning and the shaky bull pen was in charge. Barry Bonds didn't play for the Giants but his replacement, Fred Lewis, hit a grand slam. Three other Giants also homered, including ex-Red Rich Aurilia, in the 9-5 setback.

On Thursday, the Reds had another chance to win a series, something they hadn't been able to do for a month. Bronson Arroyo pitched and took things into his own hands early by hitting a home run, the first by a Reds' pitcher this year. Josh Hamilton hit his 14th homer of the year in the 6-3 win. The bull pen threw two scoreless innings. Wow!

On Friday, the Arizona Diamondbacks were in town and the Reds pitched Kyle Lohse. When he's good, he's very, very good and when he's bad, he's very, very bad. He was good tonight. He had a one hit shutout going into the ninth. He finished the game giving up just one run and four hits as the Reds won 8-1. Adam Dunn (24), Ken Griffey Jr (23) and Phillips (17) all had home runs. Two in a row. Heeyah!

On Saturday night, the Reds sent young Homer Bailey to the mound against the D-backs. He was coming off of two terrible outings in a row. This night he was on. He pitched five - gave up a single run and went out with the Redlegs up 3-1. Tom Stanton pitched two scoreless innings of relief. Then came the lethal mixture - Todd Coffee and the eighth inning. Of course, he gave up a 3-run homer to tie the game. Unbelievable! The Reds scratched out a run in the bottom of the eighth and held on, behind David Weathers, to win 5-4. Lo and behold, three in a row. Edwin Encarnacion homered.

On Sunday afternoon, the Redlegs were going for their first series sweep of the year and their first 4-game winning streak of the year. Harang was the pitcher, Hatteberg (8) and Ross (14) each homered, and Aaron threw a masterpiece: 8 innings, 6 hits, 8 k's, one run and a 3-1 lead when he sat down. Weathers was brought in to seal the deal for the second day in a row. What could go wrong? With two outs, the D-backs got three straight hits and tied it up. The game went to the 11th and Hatteberg knocked in Phillips with a single and all was well. All except Josh Hamilton who was sporting a nifty cast on his right forearm. We'll find out more about this next Thursday.

At the 'break', the Reds no longer have the worst record in Baseball. They are 36-52 and are only 13 games behind Milwaukee in the division.