Thursday, September 23, 1999
REDS 4, PADRES 3
BY CHRIS HAFT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Pokey Reese slides safely past Padres catcher Ben Davis in the second inning Wednesday night.
(AP photo)
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SAN DIEGO — The Reds sustained their postseason hopes Wednesday night with an absolutely essential 4-3 victory over the San Diego Padres.
Losers in five of their previous eight games, the Reds (90-63) trimmed their deficits to 2 1/2 games behind their immediate playoff rivals, National League Central Division-leading Houston and wild-card pacesetter New York. Houston fell at Pittsburgh, 3-2, while New York lost at Atlanta, 5-2.
Though Cincinnati can gain a half-game on the Mets tonight if they lose their series finale to Atlanta, hope will carry the Reds only so far. “If we don't win, it's irrelevant what (the Astros and Mets) do,” said left fielder Greg Vaughn, whose two-run homer in the fifth inning provided the deciding runs.
The Reds finished 3-3 on this trip to avoid posting a losing record for the second time in their last three excursions. Winning also spared them from losing their third consecutive series.
Halting the collective slump suffered by the Reds' bullpen, which had posted a 5.93 ERA in the previous 21 games, Scott Sullivan and Danny Graves, who earned his 25th save, combined for 3 2/3 innings of scoreless relief behind starter Ron Villone (9-7).
The Reds amassed only eight hits, but made most of them count.
Vaughn's homer not only padded Cincinnati's 2-1 edge but also continued his assault on the franchise's one-month home-run record.
Vaughn followed Sean Casey's double by steering Andy Ashby's full-count pitch into the left-field seats for his 42nd homer of the season, tying Houston's Jeff Bagwell for fourth-most in the league. It gave Vaughn the second-highest home-run total of his 10-year career, behind last season's 50 with San Diego.
Vaughn hiked his September home-run total to 13, one short of the franchise record that Hall of Famer Frank Robinson set in August, 1962. The Reds have 44 homers this month, six shy of the club mark of 50 reached in August, 1956.
Then the Reds came dangerously close to tossing aside their postseason hopes — literally — as a pair of throwing errors on the same sixth-inning play fueled a Padres rally that produced two runs.
“We were trying to give it away,” Vaughn said.
Protecting a 4-1 lead, Villone walked Ben Davis with one out in the sixth before yielding Damian Jackson's RBI double. Then Villone compounded the trouble with his second wild pickoff throw of the game, advancing Jackson. The ex-Red scored when center fielder Mike Cameron's relay flew past third baseman Aaron Boone.
Villone confronted his second bases-loaded jam of the evening in the third inning and escaped with only one run scoring.
Ex-Red Reggie Sanders, the hero of Tuesday night's 6-2 San Diego victory, blooped a single to right field with one out. Phil Nevin chopped an infield single to third base before Wally Joyner drove an RBI single to right-center field.
Villone's wild pickoff throw to second base advanced the runners before Ruben Rivera walked to fill the bases. “It's a pickoff, not a pitch,” a self-critical Villone said. Then Villone toughened, retiring Davis on an infield pop-up before slipping a called third strike past Jackson.
“It was ugly,” Villone said. “But it's a win, and that's what's most important.”
Padres' catcher Ben Davis applies the tag to the face of Eddie Taubensee, who tried to score on an infield grounder in the second.
(AP photo)
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San Diego's considerable sloppiness helped the Reds generate a pair of unearned second-inning runs to open the scoring.
Ashby (14-10) opened the second inning by grazing Dmitri Young on the right thigh with a pitch. A passed ball sent Young to second base, from where he scored on Eddie Taubensee's double.
Taubensee advanced to third base on Boone's sacrifice bunt, but was apprehended at home plate when he tried to score on Pokey Reese's grounder to third.
Though the Reds' scoring prospects appeared to have faded, they hadn't. Ashby fielded Villone's chopper and overthrew first base, enabling Reese to score.
Villone encountered first-inning trouble but stubbornly worked out of it.
Quilvio Veras led off with a one-hop smash off third baseman Boone's chest that went for a single. After Tony Gwynn flied out, Sanders singled and Nevin walked on a 3-2 pitch to load the bases.
Joyner hit a potential double-play comebacker that Villone muffed. But he recovered the ball quickly and made an off-balance yet accurate throw home that forced out Veras. With the bases still loaded, Villone fell behind Rivera 2-0 but managed to strike him out.
Gwynn, the eight-time batting champion who ranks 18th with 3,054 career hits, left the game after five innings with a sore left knee.
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