Cincinnati Reds Grooving On First Place

CINCINNATI–An hour or so before the Cincinnati Reds took the field for an interleague game against the Detroit Tigers, shortstop Zack Cozart mused about the pleasures of being in first place.

“It makes it fun,” Cozart said. “When the team is winning everyone’s in a good mood.”

Later that evening the Reds were having fun again, celebrating with hugs and back slaps at the Great American Ball Park as if they had just won the World Series, instead of a June game. The Reds had just won, 6-5, in 10 innings on a walk-off sacrifice bunt by Wilson Valdez. Maybe not all regular-season games are created equal.

It was the first time since 1990 that the Reds won a game in that fashion–walk-off bunt game-winning hits are rarer than walk-off homers–though it’s not something commonly discussed. Cozart was right, though, it was happy hour in the clubhouse after the victory. Something about the way, its back-and-forth nature, the extra innings, the sight of Valdez laying down a perfect bunt and Miguel Cairo sprinting for home, sliding fast-first and touching the plate with his left hand under the tag attempt by Tiger catcher Gerald Laird, all contributed to jump-start emotions.

This was one night in the long season that it felt like first place in Cincinnati. Baseball purity was in the air, with a cloudless blue sky at the start, and the temperature 80ish without humidity. The game was sold out, with 38,563 fans buying tickets.

The Reds were constructed to succeed in 2012, to capture the National League Central Division and contend for the National League pennant and a spot in the World Series. But while the St. Louis Cardinals started the season en fiego, the Reds meandered through April and into May. Cincinnati was 11-11 at the end of April, then stayed within two games of .500 until May 21. Since then things have been clicking.

Starting pitching has looked stronger. First baseman Joey Votto upped his average to the neighborhood of .360, Jay Bruce has hit timely home runs, and Aroldis Chapman has emerged as a lights-out closer, his 100 mph stuff giving him a team-record 24 appearances before he surrendered his first earned run of the season Thursday. That left his ERA at 0.30 going into the Tigers game and the Reds with the knowledge that the flame-throwing southpaw could be a closer.

Streaks of one kind of another come and go, Reds manager Dusty Baker said, and half the time players, coaches and managers don’t even know about them until some sportswriter brings them up.

“All these guys don’t pay attention to half the stuff,” Baker said. “You know they all come to an end. You just let it roll.”

Just as he suggested in April when things were tough, Baker said you can’t get too enthused now when you’re in first place by a couple of games in the standings because it’s only June.

“You’ve got to stay consistent in your outlook and personality,” Baker said. “If not this game will make you schizophrenic. You’ll be a manic-depressive. I just can’t figure out why the lows feel a whole lot worse than the highs feel good.  I’ve been trying to figure that out for years.”

This game could have been one of the lows, but in a flash was converted to one of the highs. The Reds led 3-0 in the first and then 4-0. The Tigers bounced back to lead 5-4. The Reds tied it 5-5 in the eighth inning and got the winning run in the bottom of the 10th after Cairo led off with a triple to the right-field corner. In a splendid bit of base-running, Cairo’s home-plate slide following Valdez’s well-placed bunt, won the game and made the usually unheralded duo bigger one-day heroes even than Votto, who managed to blister pitches for a single, double and home run.

Baker talked about the great two innings of relief he got from Sam LeCure, the great but by Valdez, the great slide by Cairo. There was little doubt about how great Baker felt.

“That was big,” he said. “What a game.”