Ohio Sports Time Gameday Round-up: Cavs, Indians and Reds win

Saturday turned out to be a good day for Ohio sports fans. It began with the Cleveland Cavaliers, winners of 9 of their last 10 games, but coming off a dissappointing road loss to the New York Knicks. The Cavs visited the New Jersey Nets, winners of 14 straight, and the Cavs came back to beat the Nets 108-102. Meanwhile, the Cincinnati Reds were on their way to another slugfest win as they beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 11-9. Shortly after the Reds game was completed the Cleveland Indians broadcast on the new SportsTime Ohio network began as the Indians rode starter Jason Johnson to a 3-0 win. Here are a few game notes from each of these games that I hope you will enjoy.

Cavs 108 - Nets 102
- A LeBron James dunk with 50 seconds remaining tied the score at 101 as the Cavs outscored the Nets 9-1 inside the final minute of the game to end the Nets 14-game winning streak.
- LeBron scored 18 of his game-high 37 points in the 4th quarter as five Cavaliers scored in double figures. Starters Drew Gooden, Anderson Varejao and Flip Murray scored a combined 42 points and Larry Hughes added another 15 off the bench on 6-11 shooting.
- The Cavs attempted just eight 3-point shots making three of them while New Jersey went 6-22 from 3-point range.

Reds 11 - Pirates 9
- The Reds led this game 8-3 and 11-5 as the Pirates made it interesting with six runs in the final three innings.
- Austin Kearns & Rich Aurilia each homered for Cincinnati. Kearns is batting .381 through the first 5 games of the season and Aurilia has 2 HR and 7 RBI.
- Reds #1 starter Aaron Harang allowed 5 runs in 6 2/3 innings to pick up his first win of the year. Journeyman reliever Rick White got the save making him one of three Reds pitchers to record a save this season.

Indians 3 - Twins 0
- Indians starter Jason Johnson pitched 7 shutout innings allowing just four hits to earn the win starting in place of the injured C.C. Sabathia.
- Travis Hafner continued on his hot streak going 3-3 with a single, double, homerun and a walk. Pronk has now reached base in eight consecutive plate appearances going 7-7 with 3 HR in the past two games.
- Seven of the nine Indians regulars are currently batting over .300 on the season. Only Jhonny Peralta & Ronnie Belliard are below the .300 mark on the season as Belliard was given a day off on Saturday.
- Hafner and Casey Blake each drove in their 6th runs of the year in just the 5th game of the season. Blake leads the team in hitting at .471 with Hafner's .450 just behind him.