Thursday, May 20, 1999
REDS NOTEBOOK
A save? With a 12-run lead?
BY CHRIS HAFT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
DENVER — Under the circumstances, Steve Parris and Ron Villone pitched pretty darn well.
While their teammates didn't make back-to-back outs until the fifth inning, Parris and Villone stifled the Colorado Rockies' potent offense enough to allow Cincinnati to win 24-12.
Villone sounded almost apologetic for being awarded a save. His three-inning stint made that automatic, though he was asked to protect a mere 12-run lead.
“That's the way the rules are written. I didn't write 'em,” said Villone, who notched the fourth save of his 159-game major-league career and his first since Sept. 21, 1996, with Milwaukee.
Villone, who allowed two hits and walked two in three shutout innings, literally tried to stop the Rockies' momentum with his pitching pace. “I tried to work slowly, at a rhythm,” he said.
Parris (2-0) relieved starter Denny Neagle and surrendered three runs and three hits in 3ô innings. But the Reds countered with seven.
“Usually you don't like to give up three runs in three innings, but in a game like this, where hitting was very contagious, I'm going to leave here thinking I did a decent job,” Parris said.
Sweet stick
Sean Casey's 4-for-4 performance lifted his batting average to .399, second in the National League behind Larry Walker's .431 for Colorado.
“I don't feel like I'm that locked in,” said the Reds first baseman, who went 8-for-14 in the series. “But I feel like I'm really focused, pitch by pitch, and having good at-bats. The ball doesn't look like a watermelon to me, but I feel like I'm getting pitches to do something with.”
Slick thieves
Before the Reds began slugging, they displayed their base-stealing prowess.
They accumulated 11 consecutive thefts without being caught, a streak that began May 9, before Casey was thrown out in Wednesday's second inning.
Mike Cameron, who notched his 15th steal of the season in Wednesday's sixth inning, had four of the steals in this streak. Michael Tucker notched three, Pokey Reese two and Greg Vaughn and Jeffrey Hammonds one apiece.
First-base coach Dave Collins, who instructs the Reds in base running, attributed their proficiency to a combination of getting good leads and jumps, deciphering opposing pitchers' moves and selecting opportune pitches on which to steal.
“These guys all have a little bit of instinct, which helps,” Collins said. “It makes my job a lot easier.”
Etc.
And in the 37th game, Barry Larkin rested. The Reds shortstop, who had played every inning before Wednesday, left the game after the top of the seventh inning with Cincinnati owning a 12-run lead.
• Colorado's Chris Sexton, the St.Xavier High School and Miami University graduate, started at shortstop after Neifi Perez was scratched with a strained left wrist. Sexton went 0-for-3 and drove in a run with a fielder's-choice grounder in the third inning.
• Walker extended his hitting streak to 20 games with a 4-for-5 afternoon.
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