So that's what a Adam Dunn home run is

After a span of eleven days, Dunn finally hit another home run. It came in the fourth inning off of Cleveland's Jeremy Sowers. Sowers was making his major league debut but Ken Griffey Jr. was the first player to hit a home run off him, beating Dunn by a few pitches.

Dunn last hit a home run at Jacobs Field on June 29, 2003.

The Reds are home against the worst team in the majors right now, the Kansas City Royals.

Dunnreal

Adam Dunn closed a personal home run-fest of a series with the Brewers this afternoon by hitting an eleventh inning walkoff home run off of Danny Kolb. The homer provided all the runs in the 3-0 victory.

This was Dunn's fourth career walkoff homer. His last also came against the Brewers when he lead off the ninth inning on July 24, 2005 against Julio Santana with a home run. Chad Cordero and Brad Lidge served up Dunn's other game-ending shots.

Speaking of Cordero, the home run Dunn hit to win the game against him came on June 5, 2004. This was the last time Dunn had hit a home run in extra innings before today. Dunn has three tenth inning home runs and three eleventh inning home runs to his credit.

Yesterday, Doug Davis gave up a home run to Dunn that immediately followed Rich Aurilia going long against Davis. It marked the sixth time Dunn has hit a home run immediately following a teammate having done so. Dunn has followed a Ken Griffey, Jr. home run three times and Aurilia, Felipe Lopez and Austin Kearns once each.

Dunn's homer on the eleventh was not notable for anything other than being his first off a pitcher named Jackson (Zach). No Johnsons or Smiths have given up a homer to Dunn yet.

The Reds take on the World Champion Chicago White Sox next. Dunn has now homered in four consecutive games which ties his career best. He has no home runs against the White Sox.

20th of the season

I didn't post after the St. Louis series, a series which the Reds swept to put them in a tie for first in the National League Central Division. Dunn did not play much of a part in the victories, only getting hits in one game. Those hits did include a home run off of Josh Hancock.

The Reds then had a four game set against the Cubs which was my main motivation for not posting. The series before was against the Cubs as well. Yahoo! Sports highlighted Dunn in their matchups to watch section for the first game of the series. As readers of this space know, Dunn loves to face Glendon Rusch, the game one starter. Dunn entered the game with a career .500 average against Rusch with six homers. Rusch was pounded, leacing in the fourth inning, but Dunn did get a hit off of him. The rest of the Reds did, extending their winning streak to eight games.

A three-game losing streak commenced but Dunn did finagle a pair of homers during the trio. Greg Maddux gave up his fourth career home run to Dunn and Scott Eyre was touched by Dunn for the second time in two weeks. The home run off Eyre was the 20th of the season for Dunn and is the second earliest point in the season that Dunn has reached 20.

In 2003, Dunn hit his 20th homer on June 7th. He only hit seven more before missing the rest of the season with an injury.

Of Dunn's 20 homers this season, seven have come against the Cubs, four against the Cardinals, a pair versus the Tigers and one each coming off pitchers from the Pirates, Brewers, Nationals, Diamondbacks, Rockies, Marlins and Astros.

If everyone else can do it....

...why not Dunn? The Reds had seven home runs against the Astros in sweeping the three-game series from the Astros. Dunn had none of them, however.

The Reds are three games behind the Cardinals, whom they play next. The starters for St. Louis are Jeff Suppan, Cris Carpenter and Sidney Ponson. Dunn has hit two of his seventeen home runs this season off of Ponson. Suppan is a milestone pitcher for Dunn, having served up Dunn's 100th career home run on July 28, 2004.

Dunn seems to have trouble getting his first home run out of the way each June. Here are the dates of the first homer he has hit in June of each year of his career:

June 11, 2002 at TEX. Two home runs, one off Kenny Rogers, the other Randy Flores
June 6, 2003 vs TOR. Off Roy Halladay
June 1, 2004 at FLA. Two home runs, one off Brad Penny, the other Nate Bump
June 8, 2005 vs TB. Off Lee Gardner

Club a Cub

The Cubbies got the best of the Reds but Dunn did manage four extra base hits, including a homer off of Scott Eyre, in 12 at bats during the series.

The Reds travel to Houston now for a three game set. Wandy Rodriguez, Fernando Nieve and Roy Oswalt will start for the Astros.

Dunn has not had tremendous success at Minute Maid Park, despite it being a bit of a hitter's paradise. Dunn has hit 94 homers since the last one he hit at Minute Maid. Of the pitchers above, Oswalt is the only one who has given up a homer to Dunn, his thirteenth career homer back in 2001.

Nieve is Spanish for snow. Dunn has four home runs in his career off of Josh Fogg. Perhaps Dunn will fare well against another water-based last name. He also has four off of Woody Williams, so there could be a positive first name connection going on with Senor Rodriguez (Dunn has one homer off of Felix Rodriguez).