Thursday, September 09, 1999

REDS 6, CUBS 4

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More tangos in Parris

BY CHRIS HAFT
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Greg Vaughn is greeted by Jeffrey Hammonds and Dmitri Young after his fifth-inning HR. (AP photos) | ZOOM |

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        CHICAGO — Steve Parris was a stabilizing force earlier in the season when the Reds' biggest concern was their starting rotation. Now that winning is the Reds' sole preoccupation, Parris intends to remain an influential figure.

        Parris, Cincinnati's most consistent starting pitcher before straining his right triceps muscle in late July, reasserted his presence Wednesday by yielding two runs in seven innings at Wrigley Field as the Reds beat the Chicago Cubs 6-4.

        The Reds must continue to receive similar efforts from Parris if they're going to catch the first-place Houston Astros, whose National League Central Division lead remained at three games. Houston won its fifth straight game, 10-2 over Philadelphia.

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        The Reds (81-58) continued to thrive on power. Having tied a major-league record with 21 homers in their previous five games, the Reds pulled safely ahead in the fifth inning on Greg Vaughn's two-run homer that extended their lead to 5-2.

        “When he gets hot like this, he can carry you,” Reds manager Jack McKeon said of Vaughn, who has seven homers in his last 21 at-bats.

        But the most meaningful development from the Reds' perspective was the effectiveness of Parris, who worked only 1 2/3 innings Friday at Philadelphia in his first appearance since leaving the disabled list. Before that, he was the only Red to have pitched at least five innings in each of his starts.

        “That's what I try to tell you guys: Pitching's the key,” McKeon said. “You have to have it.”

Pokey Reese tags out Jeff Reed. | ZOOM |

        Asked to gauge his importance to the Reds' postseason bid, Parris said: “Hopefully, very important. I think we have enough depth right now that if I did have a problem, somebody could step in and do the job. But I want to be the one who does the job. I want to be the one on the mound taking the heat, shall we say.”

        Parris (8-2), who threw 70 strikes in 110 pitches, put heat on himself by allowing Mark Grace to reach base in front of major-league home-run leader Sammy Sosa all three times he faced the Cubs' 3-4 hitters. Grace doubled with two outs in the first inning and walked in the fourth and sixth, the only free passes Parris issued.

        Yet Sosa, who grounded a ninth-inning RBI single off Danny Graves (20th save), went 0-for-3 against Parris.

        “I just try to keep the ball out of the middle of the plate,” Parris said. “(Unless) you do that, Sammy's going to crush it. He has unbelievable power. You have to keep him off balance.”

        The one-sidedness of this matchup was established in the first inning, when Parris got Sosa to fly out to center field. Sosa helped Parris by flailing at a 3-0 pitch that was almost a foot outside. “I had no chance. Not even with a guitar,” Sosa said.

        After languishing on the disabled list from July 26 through Aug.31, Parris said he felt that he still hasn't regained his full effectiveness.

        “I still have to zero in a little bit on the control,” he said. “The command of my fastball was off today. I was up in the (strike) zone a little bit too much. Fortunately it was up enough that they were swinging at it and couldn't get on top of it.”

        Dangling high pitches is a dangerous activity at Wrigley when the wind blows toward the outfield, as it did Wednesday. The breezes, which traveled toward right field, were measured at 10 mph at gametime. But Parris allowed no home runs. “I don't know if the wind was blowing out as hard as it seemed. It might have been swirling,” he said.

        Parris received substantial offensive support from his batterymate, Jason LaRue, whose two-run, bases-loaded single capped a three-run fourth inning off Cubs left-hander Andrew Lorraine (1-4).

        To that point, LaRue was only 4-for-29 against lefties. Perhaps aware of this, the Cubs intentionally walked Mike Cameron to face LaRue. None of this negativity entered LaRue's mind as he lined Lorraine's first pitch over third base to erase Chicago's 2-1 edge.

        “I guess you could say it (the intentional walk) pumps me up,” LaRue said. “But also in that situation, I want to try to stay as relaxed as possible. If you want to do too well, you're going to put a little bit of pressure on yourself.”

       

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