A.J. Ramos blanked the Yankees in the next two innings

CINCINNATI, Ohio -- The Reds lost a game to the weather -- a recurring problem this season -- and took a couple more steps toward getting some injured players back on the roster. The opening game of a series with the Chicago Cubs was postponed on Monday following a 57-minute delay to the first pitch. It was the eighth postponement in 12 years at Great American Ball Park. The game wasnt immediately rescheduled. Manager Bryan Price said the game wont be made up during this series. The Cubs visit for a four-game series from July 7-10. "Theres no way well make it up in this series," Price said. "The way it works out, well probably be able to make it up during that series in July before the All-Star break." Rain has been a problem in Cincinnati this season. The Reds have had one game postponed and another suspended overnight because of rain. Theyve had rain delays for four of the 10 games totalling 8 hours, 57 minutes. The teams will stay on schedule with their starters. Chicagos Jeff Samardzija will face the Reds Alfredo Simon on Tuesday night. It will be Simons first scheduled start since an unidentified woman filed a civil lawsuit against him in a Washington, D.C. court last Thursday, claiming he sexually assaulted her in a hotel one year ago. "I take him at his word that nothing happened and hes assured me that hes ready to pitch and his focus is on pitching," Price said. Simon has been one of Cincinnatis best starters while filling in for the injured Mat Latos, who had surgery to repair torn cartilage in his right knee on Feb. 14. Simon is 3-1 with a 1.30 earned run average in four starts. Latos had a setback in his recovery from the knee problem when he developed soreness in his pitching forearm near the elbow. He has resumed playing catch and could get back to throwing off the bullpen mound later this week. "Once we get him on the mound a couple of times, then we go out there and do a simulated game and then get him into rehab games," Price said. "Hes not like starting from square one, even though hes just playing catch now. "If we dont have any setbacks, we should be able to progress pretty quickly through this rehab." Closer Aroldis Chapman is scheduled to throw to Reds batters again on Tuesday before the game. If that goes well, he could start a rehab stint in the minors. Chapman was hit on the forehead by a line drive on March 19 and had a metal plate inserted in his forehead to help fractures heal. "If everything goes well with that (on Tuesday), then we anticipate getting him out on a short rehab and then having him back with us pretty quickly," Price said. Samardzija is trying to break a streak of 11 straight starts without a win since last Aug. 30. Samardzija has pitched well -- quality starts his last eight games -- but the Cubs have scored only 21 runs while he was on the mound in the last 10 games. Last Wednesday, Samardzija left with a 5-2 lead before Arizona rallied for a 7-5 win. The Cubs havent fared well against the Reds overall. They dropped two of three at Wrigley Field this month and havent won the season series against Cincinnati since 2009. Theyre 6-16 against Cincinnati over the last two seasons and 10-28 over the last three. NOTES: Cubs RH Jake Arrieta will be activated off the DL and could start later this week. Hes been sidelined since March 21 with tightness in his pitching shoulder. RH Carlos Villanueva will move into the bullpen. ... RF Nate Schierholtz was going to get a day off. ... The Reds Skip Schumaker started a rehab assignment at Triple-A Louisville on Monday. Hes recovering from a separated left shoulder sustained during spring training. Custom USA Soccer Jerseys . Mark Teahen scored the go-ahead run in the home seventh on an error by Scott Sizemore, who had knotted the game with a solo homer in the previous half- inning. Paul Konerko then hit an RBI single which proved to be the winning run. Fake USA Soccer Jerseys . -- Craig Anderson has quite a record against his former team, the Florida Panthers. https://www.cheapusasoccer.com/ . The Redskins announced Monday that the quarterback who led the team to the Super Bowl championship in the 1987 season will serve as a personnel executive. Cheap USA Soccer Jerseys . Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Buddy Robinson scored 43 seconds apart in the second period to lead the Binghamton Senators to a 4-1 victory over the Bulldogs in American Hockey League action Friday night at the Bell Centre. USA Soccer Gear . On Sunday, hell attempt to become the youngest driver to win a NASCAR Nationwide race on Iowas short track. The 20-year-old Blaney wont be the only kid pushing a podium finish.As we head into the final 10 days of the Blue Jays stay in Florida, there a couple of areas of concern. For one, the Jays havent scored more than five runs in 13-straight games. Of course, in the spring, the full everyday line-up is rarely together for more than a couple of games a week and even then, only a few innings at a time. Ryan Goins, for all he is capable of doing with the glove at second base, is only hitting .168 at last glance. Brandon Morrow, counted on so heavily this season, has had trouble commanding his four-seam fastball and has seemingly been dropped to the number-five slot in the rotatioon. On the flip side of that, Drew Hutchison has looked so good that he has been elavated to the number-two position in the rotation between R.A Dickey and lefty Mark Buehrle. Closer Casey Janssen started camp with should soreness, but he apppears to be doing well, throwing on the side and assures everyone he will be ready for opening day, despite not having seen any game action yet. J.A. Happs sore back seems to be coming around and hes been slotted in again as the number-four starter. The Jays Grapefruit Circuit record is only 7-10, but those records are rarely an indication of how a team is going to do in the regular season. A year ago, the Jays were 16-17 in Florida, yet only won 74 games for the 2013 campaign. St. Louis won the National League pennant after going just 16-15 in the spring. The Boston Red Sox played .500 ball in the sunny south at 17-17 in its first year under skipper John Farrell and then went on to beat the Cardinals in the World Series. In 2012, their final year with Farrell as manager, the Blue Jays went a scorching 24-7 in Dunedin, tops in the Majors, with a run differential of plus-79, yet they went on to stumble to just 73 wins during the season. The Detroit Tigers, though, werent too far behind the Jays at 20-8 and they made it to the World Series against San Francisco. The Giants had been 18-15 that spring and went on to win their second Fall Classic in three years. In 2011, the Kansas City Royals went 25-7, while the Seattle Mariners were 22-11. The Royals still havent made the playoffs since winning the World Series in 1985 and the Mariners havent made the playoffs in a dozen years. The most exciting aspect of spring training is watching the breakout performances of young players, as is with the case of the Jays Drew Hutchison this spring. The rest of it is just about hoping your team can open the season healthy and can come close to living up to expectations. - Injuries could play a part in the American League West race and, in turn, the Wild Card. Two of the Oakland As starters are down with arm troubles. Jarrod Parker has forearm stiffness, which can be a precursor to ellow trouble, and the 25-year-old righty already had one Tommy John surgery in 2009. A.J. Griffin has elbow issues as well, and will find out shorttly if he needs Tommy John.ddddddddddddMeanwhile, Seattles number-two starter Hisashi Iwakuma is recovering from a sprained ligament in the middle finger of his pitching hand and is iffy, at best, for the start of season. The Ms top pitching prospect, Taijuan Walker, has bursitis in his shoulder and will likely start the season in the minors on rehab. - Some of the National Leagues better clubs havent escaped the injury bug, either. Atlanta Braves starter Kris Medlen likely needs his seond Tommy John and Brandon Beachy could also be on track for his second. The Braves are also keeping a close watch on Mike Minors shoulder. Arizona Diamondbacks ace lefty Patrick Corbin is currently seeking a second opinion on whether or not he needs Tommy John. If that isnt bad enough for the D-Backs, the recently signed Bronson Arroyo, an iron man with the Cincinnati Reds, is out indefinately with a disc problem in his back. The Philadelphia Phllies, of course, lost Roy Halladay to retirement. Now their number-one starter, Cole Hamels, is dealing with left shoulder fatigue. Though hes starting to feel better throwing on the side, there is no guarantee Hamels will be ready for Opening Day. - I guess you could call it a Panama "Root Canal" for the New York Yankees over the weekend. While on their special goodwill tour of Panama, the home of their now retired future Hall of Fame closer, Mariano Rivera, the Yanks were no-hit by the Miami Marlins. It happened on Saturday at a jam-packed Rod Carew Stadium. The Marlins Brad Hand started off by throwing five perfect innings and striking out six. Steve Cishek came in for a scorless sixth-inning before A.J. Ramos blanked the Yankees in the next two innings and then Arquimedes Caminero finished off the no-no in the ninth. - We talked about a lot of the pitching injuries, but this one appears to be both serious and mysterious. Tigers shortstop Jose Iglesias, a key pick-up from Boston in a three-way deal last season, has a severe case of shin splints in both legs caused by a problem with his feet. He could miss a large chunk of this season, maybe even the entire season, leaving Detroit without a legit number-one shortstop. - Its not exactly a Babe Ruth-ian differential, but the Baltimore Orioles Chris Davis had indeed a special season in the home run department last year. Daviss MLB-best 53 homers was nine better than American League runner-up Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers and 17 up on the National League co-leaders Pedro Alvarez of the Pittsburgh Pirates and the D-Backs Paul Goldschmidt at 36. The last time that happened was 2010, when the Blue Jays Jose Bautista slugged 54 homers, 15 more than AL runner-up Paul Konerko of the Chicago White Sox at 39 and 12 more than NL leader Albert Pujols, then of the Cardinals, at 42. ' ' '