Homer Bailey Makes His First Major League Start of the Season

Edinson Volquez tried to take a flight of steps two at a time for some unknown reason. The conditioned professional athlete felt a twinge in his back and made an early exit from his last start.

Efforts to treat the injury to allow "Two Step" Volquez to make his scheduled start against the Cleveland Indians were unsuccessful.

The Reds called up its prized pitching prospect, Homer Bailey to start Saturday against the Indians. Ironically, Bailey made his first career start against the Tribe on June 8, 2007. He recorded a victory in a 4-3 Reds triumph.

Bailey, who is still only 23-years old, pitched well this spring, nearly winning a spot in the rotation that eventually was assigned to the more seasoned, Micah Owings.

Bailey returned to Louisville and had a couple rough starts but rallied to put together a streak of six starts in which he pitched at least six innings. Four were quality starts under MLB scoring criteria.

His record in Louisville was 3-5 with a 4.57 earned run average. In his last start Monday, Bailey was the losing pitcher in a 2-0 loss to Norfolk in a double-header seven inning game. Bailey got a complete game by working six innings as the visiting starter.

The highlight of the season for Bailey was a 15 strikeout performance against the Toledo Mud Hens on April 26.

Bailey had control problems and appeared to have problems communicating with catcher Ramon Hernandez. He walked the leadoff hitter, Asdrubal Cabrera, to open the game. He escaped in part because shortstop Alex Gonzalez ran down a pop up down the leftfield line off the bat of Grady Sizemore. That is the kind of defensive support that pitchers do not get at the Triple AAA level. Many times a pitcher's Triple A ERA is inflated when they come to the Major Leagues.

Bailey fanned Victor Martinez, who was hitting .391 as he stepped to the plate. Cabrera was gunned down trying to steal by Ramon Hernandez to end the inning.

The second inning was not so forgiving.

Joey Votto hit a home run to stake the Reds to a single-run lead but Bailey couldn't hold it. Shin-Soo Choo walked to open the inning and Mark DeRosa hit his seventh home run to put the Indians on top. Matt LaPorta singled. Jamey Carrol walked one out later. Opposing pitcher, David Huff bunted the runners along. Cabrera's two out single scored the runners, leaving the Reds trailing 4-1.

Votto's second home run of the game capped a five-run second half by Cincinnati and Bailey was handed a two-run lead.

He blanked the Indians in the third and fourth but lost control in the fifth. He walked Cabrera, Sizemore and Choo around a fly out by Martinez.

Baker took out the young prospect with the bases loaded, two out shy of the requisite five innings needed to qualify for a win.

His replacement, Jared Burton, allowed a game-tying single to left by DeRosa, both runs charged to Bailey.

He finished with 4 1/3 innings. He only gave up three hits but walked a career-high six and allowed six runs that tied a career-high.