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Cincinnati
Reds relief pitcher Aroldis Chapman throws
against the Arizona
Diamondbacks in the ninth inning of a baseball game
on Sunday
in Phoenix. Chapman earned the save and the Reds won 4-2.
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Reds take finale vs. D-backs behind Latos
Given early lead,
starter ties career high with 13 strikeouts
reds.com
PHOENIX- Back-to-back losses already made the series vs. the D-backs a
lost cause for the Reds by Sunday, but the three-city, eight-game road
trip is far from that. That made leaving Phoenix with a win heading
into Monday's off-day a little more paramount.
Boosted by first-inning home runs by Shin-Soo Choo and Brandon
Phillips, Mat Latos tied a career high with 13 strikeouts before the
Reds hung on for a 4-2 win over the D-backs.
"It was very important," Phillips said. "You never want to get swept.
Just getting that win, we showed that we're still here. I felt like we
should have won yesterday. All you can do is learn from your mistakes
and stay hungry. I'm glad we got the job done today."
The Reds quickly put the tough walk-off loss from Saturday behind them
in the top of the first inning. Against Randall Delgado, Choo hit an
0-2 pitch to right-center field for his 11th homer, and fourth leadoff
homer, of the season.
Zack Cozart followed Choo with a double to left field. With one out,
Phillips drove a 1-0 pitch into the left field seats for a two-run
homer and 3-0 lead.
In the top of the second, Xavier Paul led off with a double to the gap
in right-center field. Later, with the bases loaded and one out, Cozart
hit a long sacrifice fly to the warning track in left-center field.
Cincinnati's lineup was kept largely silent the rest of the afternoon.
"We scored early; we've still got to work on scoring some more, some
add-on runs," Reds manager Dusty Baker said. "We hit the ball and
didn't have anything to show for it."
Fortunately for Baker, Latos had the D-backs missing -- a lot. He
pitched 7 2/3 innings with one run, six hits and two walks allowed.
"Latos, he was dealing," Baker said.
Making his final strikeout total a little more impressive was that
Latos had zero K's through two innings.
"In the first inning, it took me a little while to get into a groove,"
said Latos, who also struck out 13 Brewers on June 25, 2012. "The first
inning didn't feel too good. I didn't feel too great with my command. I
came back out in the second inning, made a little bit of an adjustment,
and it worked."
In the third and fourth innings, Latos struck out all six batters.
"He was really good; he's been good his whole career," D-backs first
baseman Paul Goldschmidt said. "He went right after us; he didn't miss
much. We tried to be aggressive, but he got the ball down. When he got
ahead, he had great putout pitches. We just weren't able to get
anything going."
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