Sunday, May 09, 1999

CUBS 7, REDS 4

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Vaughn can't repeat 9th-inning heroics

BY JOHN FAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Aaron Boone can't stop Jose Hernandez' single through the hole. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        When the Reds traded for Greg Vaughn in the offseason, it was for situations exactly like this. The Reds were down 7-4. There were two outs in the ninth, and two runners on base.

        A home run ties the game.

        Vaughn came close, stinging a pitch from Chicago Cubs closer Rod Beck. But left fielder Curtis Goodwin ran it down right in front of the 375-foot mark and hung onto the ball as he banged into the wall.

        Goodwin's catch ended the game and what had the makings of another dramatic ninth-inning rally, securing the Cubs' 7-4 victory Saturday before a crowd of 28,993 at Cinergy Field — the biggest crowd since Opening Day.

Benito Santiago, who homered twice, greets Sammy Sosa after Sosa's red-seater. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        “It's a funny game,” said Vaughn, who hasn't had many laughs this season.

        He was 1-for-5 with his fifth home run Saturday, raising his average to .192.

        “I haven't been that bad,” he said. “I just can't get a break. Today I get a hit and it's not a hit.”

        Vaughn was referring to the ball he hit in the first inning. Left fielder Henry Rodriguez dove for it but didn't come up with it. The runner on first, Michael Tucker, had to hold and was forced out at second.

        “That's the way it's been going for me,” Vaughn said. “I can't beat myself up about it. I'm not swinging the bat that bad. I need to have a jam job fall in for me or beat out a topper to get me going.

        “I've got to keep battling.”

        The Reds did that against the Cubs Saturday.

        They fell behind 1-0 in the first inning, but took a 2-1 lead on Sean Casey's fifth home run, a two-run shot to left-center, in their half of the first.

        The Cubs made it 3-2 in the third. But then Reds starter Denny Neagle settled down, retiring 11 of the last 14 hitters he faced. The only damage off Neagle after the third came on Benito Santiago's solo home run, which made it 4-2.

        “It was definitely better than my last outing,” Neagle said. “But it's tough because I want to be there yesterday. I'm still fighting myself a litle mechanically.”

        Neagle, who began the year on disabled list with a sore shoulder, hasn't been able get his out pitch — the changeup — working.

        But it was reliever Gabe White who let the Reds get buried in this one. After Eddie Taubensee drove in Casey to pull the Reds within one at 4-3, White allowed home runs to Jose Hernandez, Sammy Sosa and Santiago in the seventh to make it 7-3.

        Vaughn cut the lead to three with a solo shot off Terry Mulholland in the eighth.

        When Pokey Reese, who's now hitting .307, and Mark Lewis started the ninth with back-to-back singles, the Cubs brought in Beck, whose ERA is 8.31. He had blown Friday's game, and you had to like the Reds' chances.

        But Beck struck out Mike Cameron looking. It was Cameron's fourth strikeout of the game, and he was 0-for-5, dropping his average to .248.

        The Reds brought in Hal Morris to pinch-hit for Jeffrey Hammonds, and Morris hit a rope to left that Goodwin ran down in the gap.

        Vaughn jumped on Beck's first pitch.

        “I thought it was gone,” Casey said.

        So did Chicago manager Jim Riggleman.

        “It gave me a real scare,” he said.

        But Vaughn knew it wasn't likely to go out.

        “I got on top of it a little,” Vaughn said.

        Goodwin had a bead on the ball from the start, but it was no routine play.

        “I knew where it was,” he said. “But it was in the sun the whole time.”

        Another two or three feet higher and it wouldn't have mattered — the ball would have been out.

        Vaughn blamed Lance Sewell, the Reds conditioning coordinator.

        “Lance ain't doing his job,” Vaughn said with a slight smile. “I need to lift some more weights or something.”

       

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