April 4 -- WELCOME TO CINCY

CINCINNATI -- Greetings, all. Happy Friday.

Throughout the season, I'll use The Blog to give y'all a flavor of the road cities where the Phillies play. Touched down here in Cincy a little while ago, and on the way in from the airport, sports radio (not WKRP) was buzzing about Johnny Cueto, the 22-year-old phenom who struck out 10 Arizona Diamondbacks yesterday in his major-league debut. The Phillies won't face Cueto this weekend. Good for them. Too bad for us. I was looking forward to watching him. Maybe in June when the Reds come to Philly.

The Reds play at Great American Ballpark, which opened in 2003 on the banks of the Ohio River. It replaced Riverfront Stadium, the cookie-cutter home of the great Big Red Machine teams of the '70s. Most of the scribes who cover the Phillies, including me, stay across the river in Kentucky, which actually is where the airport is located. Restaurant recommendation: Montgomery Inn. Great ribs.

OK, a few Phillies notes:

* No baseball game in April, especially the first week of April, is a "must-win." But the Phillies needed that one yesterday. Everyone can exhale now. Psychologically, there's a big difference between leaving home 0-3 and being 1-2. When the Phillies came to Cincinnati last April, they were 4-10. They dropped the first game of a weekend series when Tom Gordon served up a two-out, game-tying home run to Scott Hatteberg in the ninth inning and a bases-loaded, game-winning single to Brandon Phillips in the 10th. The next day, Charlie Manuel held a 90-minute team meeting. That won't be necessary today. Not after Jimmy Rollins' first-to-third jaunt in the 10th inning yesterday helped set up the bases-loaded walk to Jayson Werth that clinched the Phillies' first win of 2008. As Martin Frank writes, they did it by playing small ball, not by hitting home runs.

* Still not sure why Rollins blew off reporters after yesterday's game. Maybe he had better things to do. Maybe he was upset with how we covered the Phillies' latest slow start. Maybe we'll get an explanation today.

* It's all about Kyle Kendrick tonight. During spring training, I talked to an AL scout who called Kendrick's out-of-the-blue, 10-win 2007 season "a miracle." Tonight, Kendrick can begin to dispel any notion that he's a flash in the pan, a one-year wonder. Or, he can spark more doubts. We'll see. Also, within this notebook, there are a few words on Ryan Howard's strange day in the field.

* Watch yesterday's game as News Journal photographer Suchat Pederson did, through his camera.

* Want to know about the Blue Rocks? Buddy Hurlock tells us that they should be exciting on the bases this year. They open their season at Frawley Stadium tonight, weather-permitting.

Check back in a few hours for more from Cincy, including, hopefully, an update on Brad Lidge, who is eligible to be activated from the disabled list before tomorrow's game.