Reds hold off big sixth from Nationals to win 8-7
The Cincinnati Reds were able to keep the Washington Nationals from taking away a win despite a six-run sixth inning and won 8-7 on Tuesday night. Ian Desmond was on third base with two outs in the sixth, but Bill Bray finally stopped the bleeding and got Adam Dunn to fly out to right. The Nationals weren't able to generate much offence after that, and Francisco Cordero notched his 26th save of the year to give the Reds the win.
The Cincinnati Reds improved to 53-42 and stayed within a half a game of the NL Central-leading St. Louis Cardinals, as the Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Phillies Tuesday night. The Nationals fell to 40-54, 15.5 games behind the Atlanta Braves in the NL East.
The bottom of the first started in a bad way for the Nationals, as Washington's starting pitcher Luis Atilano walked the first two batters and gave up a three-run home run to Joey Votto. Nyjer Morgan brought the first run home for the Nationals in the top of the third to cut the lead to two runs, but that's all the Reds' starting pitcher, Mike Leake, allowed. He then knocked in an RBI single in the bottom of the fourth, and Drew Stubbs scored when Orlando Cabrera grounded out on the next play to increase the Reds' lead to 5-1.
One inning later, Jay Bruce got Votto home on a ground out and Miguel Cairo scored later in the inning on a throwing error by National's third baseman Ryan Zimmerman. With an 8-1 lead, Leake was lifted from the game because of a two and a half hour rain delay.
Leake hasn't had a lot of support from his bullpen this season, as the 22-year-old with a 7-1 record has had two wins blown for him. All he could do was watch as another was close to slipping away.
"I wasn't really concerned," Leake said. "If it happened, it happened. Luckily, it didn't."
Reds' manager Dusty Baker wasn't as confident.
"Whew, I'm still sweating," Baker said. "The game's over and I'm still sweating."
The National's took advantage of the Cincinnati relief pitching and put up six runs in that sixth inning. Zimmerman homered after Dunn walked to start the inning, and with the bases loaded Michael Morse hit a triple to cut the lead to two. Desmond doubled to left to bring Morse home, but Dunn, coming up for the second time in the inning, wasn't able to get the tying run home. The scoring was over.
"We got the momentum back on our side," Morse said. "In a game like this, you don't know what's going to happen. There's a long rain delay, and we fought, fought, fought to the end."
Leake impressive all season
Leake never played in the minors, jumping right from Arizona State as he won his first five decisions of the season. He's the first rookie to begin a season 7-1 for the Reds since Wayne Simpson did it in 1970. He's been the best rookie pitcher by far this season, but has been overshadowed by the hype of Stephen Strasburg.
Leake can do more than just pitch though. He leads all NL pitchers with an incredible .385 average and added another RBI Tuesday night. In fact, Baker kept him in the just to bat after the rain delay and then took him out of the game.
Atilano's spot in rotation in jeopardy
Atilano hasn't been great all season with a 6-7 record, and he was sent down to Triple-A during the All-Star break to keep him from getting rusty. That didn't work out as they planned it, as he was smacked around in two and a third innings, giving up five runs on seven hits.
"I don't know," National's manager Jim Riggleman said. "He's scheduled to pitch Sunday. We'll reevaluate it, I guess. He just carried that performance from Syracuse into this game. It wasn't very good."
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