The Reds took their 11-4 victory over the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday for what it was, the first of somewhere between a lot and a few, though with the sense they only get one chance per season at Opening Day.
Before 54,820 at Cinergy Field on a cool April day, the Reds twice batted nine in an inning and they trotted out a running game they hope remains as charismatic as its lead runner, Deion Sanders.
They mixed six extra-base hits with five stolen bases on an afternoon when Rockies starter Kevin Ritz didn't get his first out until his 29th pitch.
A lineup manager Ray Knight meditated on for six weeks had 15 hits in all, eight of them in five innings against a pitcher - Ritz - who last season won 17 games, including eight in a ballpark without atmospheric friction.
Indeed, the Reds hit for the cycle in their season's first four at-bats, not including a plate appearance in which Barry Larkin walked. Sanders doubled, Willie Greene homered, Larkin walked, Reggie Sanders tripled and Hal Morris singled before the first hot-dog wrapper hit the new artificial surface.
They scored four runs in the first inning, one in the fourth and four more in the sixth in support of left-hander John Smiley's first opening-day
start. Then it was Smiley's turn to run. After six innings and a brief press conference, he dashed to Pittsburgh to aid in the delivery of his first son, Blaise John.
At some point during the victory, bullpen coach Tom Hume turned to Knight and said, ''Boy, this lineup just keeps coming at you, doesn't it?''
After filling half of a notebook this spring with prospective batting orders and deciding he had no true No. 2 hitter, Knight chose Greene to follow Deion Sanders.
Forty-eight hours later, Sanders began the season with a double and Greene homered on the first pitch he saw. In management training, that's called feedback.
''You're always looking for the perfect lineup,'' said Knight, who surely would like to keep his order from becoming the theme of yet another season. ''It's tough to find.''
For one afternoon, perfection began at the top, with Deion Sanders, 18 months after he left the game for another. His double handed Smiley a 4-0 lead after the first inning.
Then, with only a 5-4 lead for the Reds, Sanders singled, stole second and third bases, and scored on an error in a four-run sixth. All around him, Reggie Sanders had two hits, Morris had three hits, Eddie Taubensee had two hits and Ruben Sierra had two hits. The Reds scored twice more in the eighth, on run-scoring hits by Morris, who ended last season with a 29-game hitting streak, and Bret Boone.
Deion Sanders finished with two hits, two steals, two runs, an RBI and a sacrifice bunt. He also forced an error that allowed him to score.
''Today was a very good example of what's capable of happening when he gets on base,'' said Larkin, who walked four times in front of Reggie Sanders. ''You get a player of that caliber, you expect that excitement.
''He used to be a fast guy playing baseball. He used to be an athlete playing baseball. Deion has matured into being a baseball player. He's not deficient in too many areas anymore.''
Afterward, Sanders was his typical baseball self. He was humble. He was gracious. He was glad to be back.
''I'm trying to play my game,'' he said, ''not anybody else's. If I can do all that through these games this year, I'm going to be OK.''
Even Smiley, a career .149 hitter, joined the fray. After twice failing to bunt in the fourth inning, he lined an 0-and-2 pitch into the right-field corner for a double that scored Taubensee.
It was fine, except that Knight wanted him to take one more shot at a bunt.
''We have instituted fines this year for the first time, and I'm not going to fine him for missing that sign,'' Knight said. ''He said that he thought that the sign he saw was a hit-and-run sign. And I'm going to be lenient this first week or so. I'm going to get into it, but I'm going to allow these guys to make a few mistakes.''
After all, it's April. And they know it.
