High & Inside: NL Notes

To all those who think Ryan Howard never hits in the clutch, stopped hitting home runs the day he signed a massive contract extension last spring, and strikes out too much, here's how The Big Piece is perceived elsewhere:

"It's early in Ryan Howard's $125 million contract," SI.com's Jon Heyman wrote on Friday. "But Howard, who has a league-leading 29 RBIs, is worth every penny so far."

Howard, who entered play Sunday night with 30 ribbies in 32 games, is on pace for 151 RBIs. St. Louis' Lance Berkman, who had 32 RBIs in 30 games, is on pace for 172, which would be the highest total in the majors since Jimmie Foxx drove in 175 for the Boston Red Sox in 1938.

Cincinnati's Joey Votto went 0 for 4 and had his season-opening string of reaching base stopped at 33. . . . Setup man Kyle McClellan took injured Adam Wainwright's spot in the St. Louis rotation this season and is tied with Kevin Correia of the Pirates and Roy Halladay for the NL victory lead, with five. . . . Virginia Commonwealth basketball coach Shaka Smart threw out the first pitch of the Reds-Cubs game to Chicago reliever Sean Marshall, who attended VCU.

This article contains information from the Associated Press.