Two days in Cincinnati

How about this: the Reds are 3-for-44 (.068) against the Phillies' starters in the first two games of the series. Better yet, in taking a perfect game through 6 2/3 innings and handling a pretty tough lineup like the Reds for nearly nine innings , it appears as if Jon Lieber has solved the problems that plagued him through the first month of the season.

Then again, Lieber said he was throwing the ball well even though the Phillies lost his first five starts.

Check out what he said after the loss in Denver on April 16: “You look at my stats and you'd think I'd been giving it up. I'm throwing the ball fine. There are no mechanical issues. I had a rough opening day, but I haven't been hit hard the last two starts.”

Or this one following the loss to the Marlins at the Bank on April 21: “Right now, I suck. Bottom line. I'm not getting the job done and it’s no one else’s fault by mine. I'm going to leave it at that. I'm going to keep trying and I put all these losses on me.”

And this after the April 27 loss to the Rockies in Philly: “I always felt like if you got to the seventh inning, you did your job. I just have to build off that.

“I can only get better.”

After posting this line (8 2/3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 K, 110 pitches -- 83 strikes) vs. the Reds, there is nowhere to go but down. But that's OK.

***
After walking just one hitter in 23 innings and three starts for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, I thought this was an interesting quote from Cole Hamels following his debut in Cincinnati:

"The main thing I realized is that the strike zone definitely shrinks in the big leagues. You have to make quality pitches. It was definitely frustrating, because I'm not used to walking guys. I knew that to compete I was going to have to bear down and throw strikes."

This kid gets it. At 22, he's a real pro. He was that way last year at Reading -- he doesn't shrink from the attention.