Monday, July 27, 1998

BY JOHN FAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Willie Greene, left, and Mike Frank miss a fly ball hit by Giants' Rey Sanchez. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

SAN FRANCISCO -- Stan Belinda's first pitch to Jeff Kent was a slider that dropped in for a strike. So Belinda threw the perfect follow-up pitch, a sinker away.

Or so he thought.

"It was like he knew it was coming," Belinda said.

And when Kent knew what was coming this weekend, he knew just what to do with it. In this case, he drove into the left-field seats for a home run to beat the Reds 2-1 in 10 innings before a crowd of 34,638 on a sunny Sunday at 3Com Park.

With the loss, the Reds come home from their West Coast - Rocky Mountain - West Coast road trip 1-6. But they easily could have been 2-5, with a break or two Sunday.

The loss wasted the finest outing of Brett Tomko's short professional career. Tomko went a career-high nine innings, allowing three hits, one run and three walks, while striking out four.

"I've had better stuff," he said. "But I don't think I've pitched a better game."

The Reds took a 1-0 lead two batters into the game. Reggie Sanders started the game with triple and scored on Sean Casey's sacrifice fly.

Jeff Kent is congratulated by his teammates after his tenth inning home run. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

It looked like Tomko (9-8) might be able to make that hold up. He had retired the first 10 batters he faced when Rey Sanchez lofted a fly ball into the left-center field gap.

The left fielder, Willie Greene, and the center fielder, Mike Frank, both thought they had a shot at it.

Frank and Greene converged on the ball at the same time and dived for it. They collided. The ball went to the wall, and Sanchez ended up on third with a triple.

"I'm just glad Dmitri (Young) wasn't playing left," Frank said.

Young weighs 235 pounds, Greene 192, so you get Frank's point. As it was, Frank had to leave the game with bruised ribs. He found that out when the next batter, Kent, flied out to center and Frank tried to throw.

"I feel like I got beat up," he said.

After the first, San Francisco starter Orel Hershiser settled in to throw seven quality innings.

"He dazzled us," Reds manager Jack McKeon said.

After Hershiser left, the Giants' re-fortified bullpen blew the Reds away.

The Giants brought in Robb Nen, who has 27 saves, early because they knew they had Jose Mesa, acquired Thursday night in a trade from Cleveland, to back him up.

The Reds got a runner to second against Nen in the eighth and ninth but could not get the clutch hit to win it.

They came close. Darryl Hamilton made a running, diving catch of Eddie Taubensee's soft liner in the eighth.

Mesa struck out the side in the 10th.

That put the game on Belinda. Tomko threw only 106 pitches. He could have gone longer, but McKeon pinch-hit Melvin Nieves for him in the 10th.

"You got to try to score a run," McKeon said.

The first batter Belinda faced was Kent. Kent, the guy who said he should have made All-Star team instead of Bret Boone, played like Rogers Hornsby in this series. Kent came to the plate with three home runs and 10 RBI in the first two games of the series.

"He was hot as hell," Belinda said. "That helps."

But Belinda felt good after the slider for a strike. The sinker that followed the slider would have been a strike too, Belinda said, over the outer third of the plate.

"He was guessing, and he guessed right," Belinda said. "You don't see that very often. Kirby Puckett was good at that.

"But I'd throw that pitch nine out of 10 times after a slider."