Former Red Kyle Lohse Beats Reds and Mike Leake

Kyle Lohse was excited about getting the call as the Cardinals opening day starter when Chris Carpenter was placed on the disabled list.  He defeated the Miami Marlins in 80 degree heat and cooled off the Reds for the second night in a row when it was 30 degrees colder.

Lohse found himself with the Cardinals after a mediocre start of his career with Minnesota and Cincinnati.

"He's commanding the bottom of the strike zone now," his new manager Mike Matheny explained.

"I'm just trying to get quick outs," Lohse said.

He started struggled some with the slick baseball's, not the same complaint that former manager, Tony La Russa whined about.  "It was a little colder.  I had to make an adjustment once I saw what the ball was going to do.  My sinker wasn't sinking it was cutting on me (moving side-to-side).  I started to realize that it was going to do that and just tried to keep the ball down."

Carlos Beltran homered off Reds starter Mike Leake to put the Cardinals up 1-0 but Leake pitched out of a bases loaded jam when Scott Rolen turned in a slick double play, charging a slow roller near thirdbase from Yadier Molina and gunning him down with a strike to Joey Votto.

"Leake shut us down," Lohse said.  "I had to keep pitching because it could have turned around on us real quick."

Leake held the Cardinals until lifetime Reds basher, Lance Berkman, legged out a triple.  David Freese just trying to get the run home with a fly ball, managed to hit that fly over the right field fence.  It is Freese third of the season and he now has 10 RBI in the first six games.

"I let the first pitch go and I was kicking myself," Freese said.

The veteran Berkman had to leave the game with a strained left calf.  He played defense for two innings and it tightened up on him.  When he singled, he realized that he would have trouble running.

The Reds pulled within two runs on a triple from Zack Cozart and sacrifice fly by Joey Votto.

"It was still a game," Berkman said.  "I knew I might have trouble scoring on a double or going first to third.  That was a big run."

It was Berkman's own fault.  If he would have just hit the ball out of the park like he usually does at Great American Ball Park (23 home runs in 57 games), he wouldn't have hurt himself.

The Cardinals have gotten off to a fast start, getting good hitting and pitching out of the gate at the same time under new manager, Mike Matheny.   Without Albert Pujols to terrorize Cincinnati, David Freese seems to be the next nightmare for Reds pitchers.

Berkman thinks so.

"You've seen the natural maturity of a hitter," Berkman said.  "He will hit .300  with 30 home runs and drive in over a 100 runs.  You're looking at the next $200 million player."

As a side note to the contrast from La Russ to Matheny.

Matheny let Mitchel Boggs throw two innings, including lefthanded hitters, Willie Harris and Votto.  That would have never happened with La Russa, who would have used three pitchers to get three outs in that inning.

"He (Boggs) was throwing the ball good.  He's the type of pitcher, like (Lance) Lynn that can throw more pitches. (Lynn is now a starter while Carpenter heals). When a guy is throwing the ball as well as he was and he got two quick outs, I decided to let him face Votto."