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Cincinnati Reds'
Brandon Phillips, left, and Joey Votto slap hands after the Reds
defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-3 in Cincinnati. Phillips hit a home
run and had two RBI's in the game.
Cincinnati Reds…
Reds take
Pirates again
Magic number at 11
CINCINNATI -- There's a sign hanging in Dusty Baker's office that
reads, "The most important things in life are good friends and a good
bullpen, and not necessarily in that order."
It's a mantra the Reds' skipper has lived up to throughout his
managerial career, and one that came into effect again Tuesday night.
The Reds used seven different relievers in Monday night's 14-inning,
5-hour and 22-minute win against the Pirates, but they didn't seem to
feel the effects when called upon Tuesday.
Following Reds starter Mike Leake's seven innings of work, the
Cincinnati bullpen continued its scoreless-inning streak to bring home
a 5-3 win against Pittsburgh at Great American Ball Park and secure the
first two games of the three-game series.
The win reduced the Reds' magic number to clinch the National League
Central to 11 and then to 10 after the Cardinals lost in San Diego
later Tuesday.
After tossing eight clean innings Monday and two more Tuesday night,
the Reds' bullpen has now gone 13 2/3 innings without giving up a run.
"You've got to have a good bullpen today, especially when pitchers are
going six and seven innings and very few complete games, you've got to
have a good bullpen," Baker said. "In 30 seconds, you can ruin two
hours' worth of work if you don't. It's very deflating to a team to
blow games late in the game. It's very inflating for the opposing team."
With 11 arms total in the bullpen and seven running on short fumes from
Monday's marathon, the Reds needed a strong outing from Leake. What he
gave them was good enough.
Leake surrendered a solo home run to Alex Presley in the second at-bat
of the game to put the Reds down, 1-0, early. He gave up a double to
right later in the inning before eventually settling in and giving up
just four hits throughout the next five innings.
Leake didn't face too many jams for much of the night until he gave up
a two-run shot to pinch-hitter Gaby Sanchez in the seventh to make it
4-3. It was the 10th multi-home run game for Leake this season, but
Scott Rolen added a big insurance homer in the eighth and the bullpen
-- Logan Ondrusek, Sean Marshall and Jonathan Broxton -- held on to
give Leake his eighth win.
"I felt good," said Leake, who had the Pirates down to their final
strike in the seventh before surrendering the homer. "I missed a few
spots, but I was able to make the pitch when I needed to. The first
home run was a bad pitch. The Sanchez home run wasn't a bad pitch. He
was able to get to it."
Aside from the two long balls given up by the 24-year-old righty, Leake
cruised through a fairly smooth evening with the help of a stout
defense behind him.
Cincinnati turned three double plays in the contest, including one to
end the game, which earned Broxton his first save with the Reds.
"It's a great group of guys that are down there," Broxton said of the
bullpen. "You saw that last night. We played 14 [innings]. Everybody
down there is just trying to go out there and keep the ball down, work
the ball in and out, and just try to get out of there as quick as they
can."
Much of that solid defense ran through three-time Glove Glover Brandon
Phillips.
Phillips took part in one of the double plays as well as a nifty putout
in the fifth that helped squash a potential threat to Leake's line.
Brock Holt shot a single to right field and Jay Bruce came up firing in
case the runner on third tried to head home. Joey Votto cut the throw
off and made a splendid quick toss to an alert Phillips covering first
base. Phillips applied the tag to Holt, who rounded first and tried to
slide back to the bag between Phillips' legs.
"It was just a heads-up play," Phillips said. "I just snuck in there
and tried to make things happen like I always do and try to be the
sneaky player that I am. I snuck in there and got a key out, and it
really helped us that inning. That right there, I feel like that was
the game."
Phillips was just as sneaky at the plate. He was responsible for four
of the Reds' five runs, including a leadoff home run on the first pitch
he saw from Pirates starter Kevin Correia.
He struck again in the second with an RBI double off shortstop Clint
Barmes' glove and scored one batter later when Correia threw a wild
pitch past Pirates catcher Michael McKenry. Leake scampered safely home
from third, before McKenry made an errant throw to the plate past
Correia trying to get Leake, allowing Phillips to sprint home and give
the Reds a 4-1 lead. McKenry was charged with an error on the throw.
"A couple of random things happened and I gave up three runs, and that
was pretty much the gist of the outing right there," Correia said.
"[The pitch] didn't kick away that far, just had Leake, probably one of
the fastest pitchers in the league -- nobody else would've even tried
to go on that, any other pitcher -- he's got the speed to do it and
created a play for them."
Random or not, the Reds walked away victorious and with a series win
already secured after dropping two of three to the last-place Astros
this past weekend.
Read this and other articles at Cincinnati Reds
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