By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Thursday's game came down to two critical plays and, oddly enough, both went the Reds' way - against the Arizona Diamondbacks no less. That was enough to lift the Reds to a 3-2 victory before a crowd of 25,056 at Great American Ball Park.

The victory snapped a three-year, 16-game skid against the D-backs.

Reds manager Dave Miley, desperate to generate some offense, shook up the lineup.

It worked. D'Angelo Jimenez, who dropped from first to third in the order, drove home the go-ahead run with a hit-and-run single.

Miley deferred the credit.

"It had nothing to do with me," Miley said. "It just worked out. With the count 3-2, I thought he puts the ball in play, so we started the runners."

The hit was key in the two-run third that gave the Reds a 3-1 lead.

The lead was 3-2 in the seventh when the second play went the Reds way.

The tying run was at second when Chad Moeller stung a Scott Sullivan pitch into the hole at short.

Ray Olmedo made a diving snag of the ball, turning a game-tying hit into an inning-ending double play.

Bench coach Mark Berry moved Olmedo two steps toward the hole the pitch before.

"Berry told me when Mr. Sullivan is pitching to move to the hole," Olmedo said. "Because he throws a slow slider and they pull it."

After Olmedo's big play, Sullivan worked a 1-2-3 eighth and Chris Reitsma pitched the ninth for his first save.

The victory went to Aaron Harang, who is 2-0 in two starts as a Red.

Harang went 6 1/3 innings, allowing only two runs on three hits.

But, with the way the Reds have hit lately, that usually meant a loss - thus the lineup change.

"It's Catch 22," Miley said. "Jimenez has been getting on base, but how many runs has he scored?"

Coming in Thursday, he reached base 12 times in the Reds' last nine loses, scoring only three runs.

Miley led off with Olmedo, hit Jason LaRue second, Jimenez third, followed by Sean Casey, Adam Dunn, Ruben Mateo, Brandon Larson, Reggie Taylor and Harang.

But the new lineup put Casey and Jimenez, the two most consistent hitters, in position to drive in runs. Each had an RBI.

Harang, the 25-year-old right-hander obtained from Oakland in the Jose Guillen deal, pitched well.

He gave up a run in the second. Alex Cintron walked and scored when Mateo made a diving try at Moeller's liner to right. Cintron ended up with a double.

The Reds tied it in their half of the second on Taylor's RBI single.

Olmedo led off the third with a single. LaRue was hit by a pitch. With the runners going, Jimenez grounded one right where second baseman Mike Kata would have been. Olmedo scored. Casey's single to right scored LaRue.

The Diamondbacks pulled to within one in the fifth on Craig Counsell's RBI single.

Harang walked Carlos Baerga to start the seventh. After Alex Cintron sacrificed pinch-runner Junior Spivey to second, Sullivan came on to face Moeller, leading to Olmedo's game-saver.

"I can make that play," he said. "A few days ago, I played really bad defense. I know I am a good defensive player."

Reitsma got his first ninth-inning save chance.

"One-run lead, facing the three, four, five hitters, I loved the feeling," Reitsma said. "I'm enjoying the role."

Arizona	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Kata 2b-3b	4	1	1	0	0	0	.296
Counsell 3b-1b	3	0	1	1	1	0	.252
LGonzalez lf	4	0	0	0	0	0	.309
Mondesi rf	4	0	1	0	0	0	.306
SFinley cf	4	0	0	0	0	0	.299
Baerga 1b	1	0	0	0	2	0	.323
Spivey pr-2b	1	0	0	0	0	0	.250
Cintron ss	1	1	0	0	1	0	.293
Moeller c	3	0	1	1	0	0	.278
Webb p	2	0	0	0	0	1	.086
Randolph p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
McCracken ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.231
Villarreal p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Totals	28	2	4	2	4	1

Cincinnati	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Olmedo ss	4	1	1	0	0	1	.291
LaRue c	3	1	0	0	0	2	.236
DJimenez 2b	3	0	1	1	1	1	.321
Casey 1b	4	0	1	1	0	0	.297
Dunn lf	3	0	0	0	1	3	.215
RMateo rf	3	1	1	0	0	1	.244
Larson 3b	3	0	0	0	1	0	.107
JCastro 3b	0	0	0	0	0	0	.252
Taylor cf	4	0	2	1	0	0	.208
Harang p	3	0	1	0	0	2	.167
Sullivan p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Stenson ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Reitsma p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.125
Totals	31	3	7	3	3	10

Arizona	010	010	000	-2	4	2
Cincinnati	012	000	00x	-3	7	0

E-Baerga (3), Spivey (5). LOB-Arizona 4, Cincinnati 9. 2B-Kata (11), Moeller (17). RBIs-Counsell (19), Moeller (27), DJimenez (9), Casey (62), Taylor (16). SB-Counsell (8). S-Cintron.

Runners left in scoring position-Arizona 2 (Mondesi, Webb); Cincinnati 3 (LaRue, Larson, Harang).

DP-Cincinnati 1 (Olmedo and DJimenez).

Arizona	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Webb L, 7-6	5	6	3	3	2	7	97	2.56
Randolph	2	1	0	0	1	2	30	3.60
Villarreal	1	0	0	0	0	1	16	2.29

Cincinnati	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Harang W, 2-0	6 1/3	3	2	2	4	1	92	3.75
Sullivan H, 10	1 2/3	0	0	0	0	0	10	3.78
Reitsma S, 1	1	1	0	0	0	0	10	3.92

Inherited runners-scored-Sullivan 1-0.

HBP-by Webb (RMateo), by Webb (LaRue).

How the runs scored:

Reds fourth. Dunn singled to right. LaRue singled to center, Dunn to second. Pena struck out. Olmedo singled to center, Dunn scored, LaRue to second. Taylor flied out to left fielder L.Gonzalez. Bale struck out.

1 run, 3 hits, 0 errors, 2 left on. Reds 1, Diamondbacks 0.

Diamondbacks eighth. McCracken pinch-hitting for Barajas. Heredia pitching. McCracken doubled to center. Counsell sacrificed, pitcher Heredia to first baseman Casey, McCracken to third. Kata hit a sacrifice fly to right fielder Taylor, McCracken scored. Cintron singled to center. On Heredia's wild pitch, Cintron to second. L.Gonzalez homered to right on a 2-1 count, Cintron scored. Hillenbrand grounded out, pitcher Heredia to first baseman Casey.

3 runs, 3 hits, 0 errors, 0 left on. Diamondbacks 3, Reds 1.