belcher terrific tomlin not reds win redreport tim belcher pitched a dandy three hit shut out tonight as cincinnati won their second straight pittsburgh lefty randy tomlin was hit early and often by the heavily right unbalanced reds line up which managed some recently rare power with their bats belcher was solid throughout and in fact seemed to get stronger as the game progressed early on he had several three ball counts but even those were few and far between later on as he allowed only one base on balls while striking out nine in a post game interview he said his change up was working for him i should say so all nine of his strikeouts were apparently on breaking balls tomlin on the other hand was in trouble early giving up a second pitch double to lead off batter bip roberts bobby kelly followed with a single and barry larkin scored roberts with a sharp single to right the big guys mitchell sabo milligan were unable to get anything after that in fact they all struck out but kelly managed a score anyway due to a double steal and a tomlin wild pitch in fact it appeared that tomlin was going to recover nicely from his shaky start he retired of the next batters to get to the fourth behind only randy milligan though had different ideas as his line shot was poorly played by orlando merced and turned into a triple milligan would later score on reggie sanders sacrifice fly giving cinci the lead after the fifth inning spelled loss for tomlin when roberts led off with his second double of the game and one batter later larkin smacked a double down the left field line chasing tomlin barry later would score the final run on tom prince s two base passed ball the pirates managed their only threat of the day in the bottom half of the fifth when merced and kevin young hit back to back singles the second being of the bunt variety but carlos garcia struck out prince fit a foul fly and pinch hitter lonnie smith k d to end any pittsburgh hope pittsburgh pitchers backed tomlin up well though relievers blas minor moeller sp and nagel gave up only two hits in their four plus innings work barry larkin left the game in the seventh when the grounder he mis played bruised his right thumb he was taken to the hospital for precautionary x rays let s hope he s ok cincinnati is now still the worst record in the majors but with the two wins they may be looking at moving out of the cellar pittsburgh is now reds fans if you would like to receive this report on a semi daily basis as often as i write it send me your e mail address and i ll put you on the list if someone has a reds mailing list please forward it to me and i ll put everyone on the list cincinnati reds ab r h k bb lo roberts b kelly cf larkin ss branson ss mitchell lf hernandez lf sabo b milligan b sanders rf oliver c belcher p totals b milligan off tomlin leading off fourth scored b roberts off tomlin leading off first scored roberts off tomlin leading off fifth scored larkin off tomlin in fifth one out runner on second rbi scored sf sanders rbi larkin sanders sb kelly larkin gdp sabo pittsburgh pirates ab r h k bb lo martin lf bell ss van slyke cf king b merced rf young b garcia b prince c tomlin p minor p smith ph moeller p waynor ph nagel p gdp merced cincinnati pittsburgh pitching ip r er h k bb cincinnati belcher w cg so line of the day e larkin pittsburgh tomlin l minor moeller nagel wp tomlin pb prince umps rippley hallion quick crawford att t coming up the reds play two more in pitts then go to chicago for a weekend series the weather doesn t look good though don t be surprised if one or more games get rained out tomorrow jose rijo vs steve cook then smiley vs wakefield on thursday rstimets
