reds snap game losing streak redreport kevin mitchell s sacrifice fly in the eighth off brett saberhagen plated pitch runner cesar hernandez to give the reds a come from behind victory over new york hernandez ran for pinch hitter cecil espy who got the inning started with a solid single to right moved to second on bob kelly s infield sneaker down the third base line and to third on jeff branson s well placed bunt a rare show of excellent execution by the recently hapless reds offense cincinnati trailed after starter tim pugh blinked in the fifth he had only given up one hit in the first four innings a fourth inning lead off double by vince coleman coleman was left stranded at third by bobby bonilla after joe orselak popped to short orselak was pinch hitting for eddie murray who argued plate umpire kellogg s inside strike by drawing the line really he should know better than that murray and later manager jeff torborg ended up getting tossed the mets fifth started with a howard johnson s first pitch homer pugh must have been slightly shaken as he was popped on the next pitch by jeff kent s single then a ryan thompson liner to left was surprise misplayed by mitchell and turned into a rbi triple catcher hundley s grounder to the drawn in branson failed to bring thompson in then the play of the game occured saberhagen was due up so reds pitching coach larry rothschild met with the infield to discuss the possibility of a suicide squeeze they called it perfectly thompson was hung out to dry after pugh s first pitch pitch out and the threat ended isn t the national league great the reds picked up runs in the seventh to knot up the game after barry larkin s ground out mitchell chris sabo and randy milligan got back to back to back singles the third scoring mitchell reggie sanders then plated sabo with a long fly to center a double by oliver might have scored runner dan wilson but third base coach dave bristol threw up the stop sign too late wilson himself was hung out to dry killing the reds rally rob dibble came on in the ninth and pitched shakily with two outs and a runner on second bonilla came to the plate and all i could think of was the sunday game in late august last year when bonilla s three run dinger slapped a loss on dibble and spelled the beginning of the end for cinci s season bonilla ended up walking and hojo flied out to left to give the reds their first win in a week and earned dibble his third save in as many opportunities the win went to steve foster who got in what must be an ego boosting two perfect innings work striking out three saberhagen got the loss though i m a bit surprised he even pitched in the eighth i ll take it though the reds are now still the worst team in baseball with the royals victory today the mets are the line new york mets ab r h k bb lo coleman lf fernandez ss murray b orselak ph rf bonilla rf b johnson b kent b thompson cf hundley c saberhagen p totals hr johnson off pugh leading off fifth pitch b thompson off pugh in fifth out rbi picked off b coleman off pugh in fourth out on stranded at third rbi johnson thompson cincinnati reds ab r h k bb lo kelly cf branson b larkin ss mitchell lf dibble p sabo b milligan b wilson pr c sanders rf oliver c b pugh p roberts ph foster p espy ph hernandez pr lf totals oliver was stranded in the seventh after his double when wilson was run down b oliver off saberhagen out runner on first stranded rbi milligan sanders and mitchell sac branson sf sanders and mitchell ibb larkin gdp larkin new york cincinnati x pitching ip r er h k bb new york saberhagen l cincinnati pugh foster w dibble s pb wilson ejected murray torborg umps kellogg relliford runge demuth attendance t coming up the reds travel to pittsburgh for three then continue on into chicago for three next game is tuesday at expected to pitch are belcher vs tomlin rstimets
