By John Erardi
The Cincinnati Enquirer

It wasn't "stopper" material, but oh was it important what Jung (pronounced "June") Keun Bong gave the Reds Tuesday night in the opening game of this homestand.

"He gave us what we needed," said a visibly relieved Reds manager Dave Miley after the Reds' 5-4 victory over the Texas Rangers.

What the Reds needed was a bit of a rest for their bullpen and enough of a starting performance that the Reds hitters had a chance to break the team's seven-game losing streak.

The mere mention of Bong's name in Cincinnati has sparked sports talk show lines from one end of the dial to the other the past 10 weeks - he and right-handed pitcher Bubba Nelson were acquired by the Reds from Atlanta for popular right-handed reliever Chris Reitsma a week before the season began - but Bong muffled some of that criticism Tuesday night.

Going into the game, he was tabbed by Miley for 100 pitches, and that's what he delivered: 105 of them (61 strikes), good for six full innings, which is a gold standard for this team, given the starters' performances of late.

Bong gave up only five hits, although they produced four runs, all in the fifth inning, thanks to a three-run homer by Alfonso Soriano and a solo HR by Herbert Perry.

That put the Reds down 4-2, but for this team, that's better than a big lead, given their propensity for blowing them. The Reds scratched out a run in the eighth and tied it in the ninth on an Adam Dunn leadoff double and an RBI single by Jason LaRue, before Barry Larkin won it with an RBI infield-single in the 11th.

Thanks to Bong's performance, the Reds bullpen was able to get some rest, and the tail-enders (Mike Matthews, Danny Graves and Todd Jones) shut down the Rangers from the seventh through the 11th innings.

"The relievers allowed only one walk, and that was big for us, because more often than not, those guys come around to score," Miley said.

Also lost somewhat in Tuesday's late drama was the resurgence of LaRue, who not only had the big single to tie it at 4 but also had two other hits.

"He's swinging it as well as he has all year," Miley said of LaRue, who raised his batting average to .237 with his 3-for-4 night.

E-mail jerardi@enquirer.com