Cincinnati Reds'

CCIINNCCIINNNNAATTII RREEDDSS PPRREESSSS CCLLIIPPPPIINNGGSS JUNE 8, 2014 THIS DAY IN REDS HISTORY: JUNE 8, 1934 – THE REDS BECOME THE FIRST TEAM IN MAJOR LEAGUE HISTORY TO USE AN AIRPLANE TO TRAVEL FROM ONE CITY TO ANOTHER. THEY FLEW FROM CINCINNATI TO CHICAGO. CINCINNATI ENQUIRER Homers from Bruce, Frazier lift Reds over Phillies By C. Trent Rosecrans "Hamilton to Phillips to Mesoraco" doesn't quite have the same lyrical quality of "Tinkers to Evers to Chance," but the combination on display twice on Saturday was as poetic as anything that's ever been written on the game of baseball. That sounds a bit hyperbolic, but the play at the plate remains one of the most exciting bits of action on a baseball field, and executed perfectly, it's breathtaking. To end back-to-back innings with it? Well, it was a thing of beauty. Billy Hamilton, Brandon Phillips and Devin Mesoraco teamed up to end both the sixth and seventh innings in Saturday's game with the Phillies with third outs recorded at the plate, both times holding off the hard-charging visitors, preserving a 6-5 victory in front of 36,347 at Great American Ball Park on Saturday. For a team that's struggled, it was a reminder of what they can do well -- and with a few exceptions during the course of a season, this Cincinnati Reds team fields the ball well. "So today, getting that perfect relay twice really substantiated what we're trying to do," Reds manager Bryan Price said. "We have the ability to do it, we've been doing it a long time, and we just need to do it more frequently." The Reds built up a 6-2 lead in the sixth when Carlos Ruiz homered to lead off the inning, pulling the Phillies to within three runs. And then with two outs and Marlon Byrd on first, Domonic Brown doubled to right-center. Byrd was running with intentions of scoring from the crack of the bat, but as Jay Bruce and Hamilton converged on the warning track in the right-center gap, Bruce told the right-handed throwing Hamilton to take the ball. Hamilton got there quickly and the former shortstop made the quick throw to the cutoff man, Phillips, who got the ball out in a hurry to get to Mesoraco. Mesoraco took a step back, fielded the ball on a hop, made the catch and held onto the ball as Byrd barreled into him. He held onto the ball for what seemed to be the final out of the inning. However, before the Reds could reach the dugout, crew chief Tom Hallion called for a replay to see if Mesoraco violated the new rules against blocking the plate. "I was focused on catching the ball, I felt like if I would have stayed where I was at, I would have obviously given him more of home plate, but I would have had a tough hop," Mesoraco said. "For me, I wanted to back up and make sure I caught the ball. Now, it's such a hard rule to decipher and it's such a tough thing to really -- it's not black and white. My first goal is to catch the ball and tag the guy from there. If they want to call him out, they'll call him out. I think i need to catch the ball and that was me getting in the best position I could to catch the ball." After two minutes and 21 seconds, the play was confirmed by the officials in New York. Phillies manager Ryne Sandberg came out to argue and was quickly tossed from the game. It was his first career ejection. The next inning ended similarly after a two-run homer by Jimmy Rollins off of reliever J.J. Hoover closed the gap to one run, 6-5. Rollins' second homer of the series was the first off of a Reds reliever since Philadelphia's Cody Ashe homered off of Manny Parra in the seventh inning of an 8-3 loss at Citizen's Bank Park on May 18, a span of 17 games. After Hoover walked catcher Carlos Ruiz, Parra was brought in to face the left-handed hitting Chase Utley. Utley sent a ball to the wall in center, and once again the Phillies tried to score. From just in front of the warning track, Hamilton quickly got the ball to Phillips, who then threw toward home. Mesoraco was able to get up the line and make the catch and tag Ruiz as he tried to run past him, ending the inning and cutting down the tying run at the plate. "The most important part of that play is the outfielder getting the ball to Brandon cleanly and Billy did a great job of that twice today," Bruce said. "He's got a great arm, he really does. People don't talk about it a lot because he's the fastest guy on the planet, but he can really throw. He really can, he works on it, he takes pride on it and I think that's a team-wide deal as far as defense goes." Jonathan Broxton pitched a relatively drama-free eighth, allowing a single and nothing else, before Aroldis Chapman thwarted the Phillies' final comeback attempt, striking out Rollins to end the game and a perfect ninth. The Phillies, despite falling behind, repeatedly came back to pressure the Reds throughout. The Reds scored a run without a hit in the first, in large part due to the speed of Billy Hamilton, and also scored twice on long balls, the first off the bat of Todd Frazier in the second and the second a two-run shot from Bruce in the fifth. It was Bruce's first home run since returning from the disabled list -- a total of 12 games and 48 plate appearances. Those blasts, combined with RBI hits from Zack Cozart and Ramon Santiago in the fourth, gave the Reds a 6-2 lead before the Phillies' surges in the sixth and seventh. "As a team, we've been talking about doing the small things, what's going to lead to the larger things and the larger accomplishments and today was a great example of that -- getting guys in, hitting the cutoff man, making good throws on cutoffs and relays," Bruce said. "It was a good complete win, all around for us." Joey Votto to go on rehab assignment with Triple-A Bats By C. Trent Rosecrans Reds first baseman Joey Votto was scheduled to travel to Pawtucket, R.I., on Saturday to begin his rehab assignment with the Triple-A Louisville Bats. Votto will play five to six innings on Sunday, Reds manager Bryan Price said, and they'll reevaluate his status after that. "I don't know if he'll make one game or five games, I don't know, but we are going to evaluate after every game and see where we are," Price said. "Certainly we'd like to see him back with the club, but we've made an investment to get him healthier and get him closer to looking like the Joey Votto we know and now we're going to take a little sample size here with the possible games in Pawtucket and do our best to get him back here as close to normal as possible." Votto hasn't played since the May 15 doubleheader and has been on the disabled list since May 21 (retroactive to May 16), with a distal quadriceps strain in his left knee. This past week he has been taking batting practice and doing pregame workouts with the team. Votto's said he's improved and would likely play at least two games on any rehab assignment. "I think we need to test the knee and the quad in a game environment," Price said. "Joey's run the bases, he's taken ground balls, he's taken batting practice, I think he needs to play in a game, and he'll probably play in the neighborhood of five or six innings and we'll see how he holds up. That's one thing we haven't been able to replicate over the course of his rehab. We'll see how he feels not only post-game, but the next day and see how he comes through it and then we'll evaluate to see when we can get him back here." Price said there wasn't any one particular hurdle Votto would have to clear -- like sliding or playing a certain number of innings or a certain number of plate appearances -- but the team will just see how Votto is feeling after he plays. "I really think it's just the durability of being in a game and doing everything," Price said. "If you're playing first base and you have to make a quick first step on a ground ball and break quickly to cover first base, getting out of the box on a swing, which is something he hasn't done in a while. The rigors of getting up and getting down, being hot, getting cold, sitting on the bench, getting back up -- we'll see how that progresses. "We just really want to see the durability because we want to have some sort of understanding, the best we can, of what he has when he gets back and see how much we'll be able to play him. Do we play him every day or give him some periodic off days, which I'd anticipate, but more than anything it's just to see how he comes out of a game environment and see how he holds up." Price: 'We have to fight harder' By C.

Load more