FanHouse Brad Eldred

Beyond the Cards drubbing of the 'Stros, there were actually two other games of note involving the other four NL Central teams today, making it a pretty good day for the division.

It took a week, but the Pirates finally got the 2006 NL batting champ back into their lineup today in Cincy and Freddy Sanchez picked up where he left off last year. He went 2-for-4 with an RBI double and Zach Duke pitched very well for six innings (before getting shelled in the seventh) while the Pirates did one of the very few things they're good at, beating Eric Milton and by extension the Reds, 6-3. To build on to Red's Canadian meme from earlier, BC native Jason Bay hit his 2nd homer of the year to finish the Reds off and Pittsburgh's Brad Eldred made the most of his first playing time this year by homering and doubling in another run. Ken Griffey Jr. had 2 RBIs for the Reds and Xavier Nady went a full nine innings without batting any flyballs over the fence with his glove.

Meanwhile in Milwaukee, Wade Miller made his first start in Cubbie blue and he didn't look much like the Wade Miller of old, giving up six earned runs in less than 5 innings of work. Geoff Jenkins and Gabe Gross both went deep against Miller for the Brewers and Craig Counsell knocked in three runs to help the Brew Crew a 9-4 win to even off both teams' records at 3-3.

Pittsburgh and Chicago both move on to their home openers against the Cardinals and Astros, respectively, while both the Brewers and Reds will head on out towards warmer weather in Arizona and Florida.

Previously at the Fanhouse
Albert Pujols FINALLY Homers
Big Day for Canadians as Halladay and Bedard Win
Xavier Nady Finally Has Some Bad Luck

A tiny recap of yesterday's spring training games...

Congratulations on not being injured.

Hey, they finally did it. Mark Prior and Kerry Wood (watch out for that hot tub!) each pitched for the first time in a Cactus League game since 2005. Wood threw eight of his 12 pitches for strikes in a relief role. Prior didn't fare as well, allowing three runs on four hits and two walks in 1 1/3 innings of work. Oh, and the Cubs beat the Mariners, 6-5.

A tie means we're all winners. Yah!

The Pirates and Blue Jays played to an 8-8 tie in 10 innings. Brad Eldred went ya-ya, his third in as many games. Strong man, he is.

And again, another Japanese pitcher.

Kei Igawa, Yankee pitcher and poor man's Dice-K, had a small bit of pitching calamities. He allowed two runs on two hits and three walks. HOWEVA, he struck out three of the eight batters he faced. Take that, America. The Yankees won 6-5 against the Tigers. They are still undefeated in the Grapefruit League.

Your Rick Ankiel watch.

I'll let the AP take it from here:

Rick Ankiel made a diving catch in right.

A diving catch? Super! As for the score of the game, Houston dropped St. Louis 5-0.