Opening Night was like Opening Day. The Colorado Rockies couldn't keep up with Sanderses.
Deion and Reggie scorched Colorado pitching for seven hits and four RBI to lift the Reds to a 5-3 victory before a crowd of 20,210 at Cinergy Field Wednesday night.
The big blow was Reggie's three-run, green-seat home run in the first. He had two runs and a stolen base to go with his three RBI. Deion had four hits (equalling a career-high), a run scored, an RBI and a steal
''We got together before the series and talked about what we need to do,'' Reggie said. ''He said, 'I got to go 5-for-5.' That's five hits and five steals. I said, 'That sounds good. I'll get five hits and five runs.'
''Maybe we should do that every series.''
Deion and Reggie became close during spring training.
''We rode to games together,'' Deion said. ''We got to know each other.
''Reggie's a great player. He had a rough year last year. He said one time, 'I got to make a comeback this year.' I said, 'Don't say that. You never left.' He was hurt last year.''
The Sanderses helped the Reds to a 4-1 lead after four innings. That was enough for pitcher Dave Burba, who was solid against the Colorado weight-lifters: seven innings, five hits, two walks, seven strikeouts.
Burba did not get his first win until June 20 last year and finished 11-13.
''I got some breaks tonight,'' Burba said. ''That's what it takes.
This is a first step.''
Burba left a 5-3 lead to the bullpen - the same bullpen that found out before the game that closer Jeff Brantley (shoulder) would be out for at least 10 days.
Stan Belinda, the newly appointed set-up man, started the eighth inning. Eric Young greeted him with a shot in the right-field corner for a double.
One out later, Belinda hit Ellis Burks with a pitch.
Left-hander Mike Remlinger was brought in to face Larry Walker.
Remlinger won the lefty reliever by default this spring. His job is to get one left-handed hitter out. Remlinger did better than that. Walker grounded up the middle, and Barry Larkin and Bret Boone turned it into a 6-4-3 double play.
That gave the game to Jeff Shaw, the former set-up man now closing games in Brantley's absence.
Shaw earned his first save, allowing only a two-out walk.
''It really wasn't that different,'' he said. ''There's pressure in the eighth inning, too.''
Deion Sanders led off the game for the Reds with an infield single. An out later, Barry Larkin walked for the fifth time this young season. Reggie Sanders followed with a bolt that landed in the first row of the green seats above the 375-foot mark in left-center field.
Sanders has made the Rockies pay for pitching around Larkin to get to him. This time it gave the Reds a 3-0 lead.
''Last year was such a tough year for me,'' said Sanders, who hit .251 in just 81 games. ''That's going to happen early on. But it won't last long.''
He has a point. Sanders is 5-for-9 with three extra-base hits, four RBI and three runs scored.
''Reggie has been up to the task,'' Reds manager Ray Knight said.
Walker got a run back with home run in the second.
Deion became the RBI man in fourth. Boone singled and moved to second on Burba's sacrifice bunt. He scored when Deion lined a single up the middle.
Deion is 6-for-9 this season. And, remember, he hit safely in his last 14 spring training games.
''I don't know what to say about Deion,'' Knight said. ''When everyone else is feeling pressure, he responds. You talk about his nickname, Prime Time. But he does have the ability to rise to the occasion.''
But a 4-1 lead isn't safe around the Rockie power pack. Andres Galarraga cut a run off of the lead with a solo shot to lead off the Colorado fifth.
Home runs continued to be Burba's major flaw this spring. Eight of the 29 hits he allowed in spring training were homers. Wednesday night two of the first three hits he allowed were dingers.
The Sanderses, however, were playing Rockie baseball: Give up a run; score a run.
Reggie Sanders got it started in the fifth with a one-out single. He stole second and scored an out later when Ruben Sierra lashed a double into the right-field corner.
That gave the Reds a 5-2 lead, just the kind of support Burba could not get early last year. He lost his first eight decisions of 1996. In those losses the Reds averaged 2.25 runs.
Burba, the big right-hander from Springfield, Ohio, was unhittable at times. He struck out the side in the fourth and seventh with some serious power pitching.
''I wouldn't be surprised if he won 20 games this year,'' Knight said. ''He has that kind of stuff.''