PHOENIX (AP) -- Struggling through the first six
innings, the Cincinnati Reds finally broke through to get a milestone
win.
Chris Heisey hit two of Cincinnati's four home
runs, including the tying two-run shot in the seventh inning, and the
Reds went on to a 6-2 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on
Wednesday.
The win was Cincinnati's 80th in their
132nd game of the season, the fastest a Reds team has reached the mark
since 1976, when the Big Red Machine got there in 125
games.
Mat Latos (11-4) pitched seven innings,
allowing two runs on five hits with seven strikeouts and three walks for
the win. He also had two hits.
"We struck in a
hurry. Had some guys hit some long balls ... and Latos pitched great,"
Reds manager Dusty Baker said. "Other than that balk in the first
inning, he pitched outstanding. And he hit well,
too."
Dioner Navarro's solo shot two batters after
Heisey's first blast put Cincinnati ahead, Brandon Phillips added a
two-run homer in the eighth and Heisey capped the scoring two outs later
to help the Reds complete the three-game sweep.
"It
feels good to win," Phillips said, adding that his home run off the
batter's eye in center field was hit with all the power he could
generate.
"When I hit it, I was like `Please get up,
please get up,' but I didn't think it was going to be like that,"
Phillips said. "I did some pushups (Tuesday) night and I was like `Maybe
pushups really work.'"
Latos believes he came out
with a little too much adrenalin to start the game, when he gave up two
hits, walked two and balked home the Diamondbacks' first run. But he was
able to settle down.
"We know that we have to
continue to win ballgames. As long as we can win the series, we've got a
good chance of going somewhere," Latos
said.
Cincinnati trailed 2-0 until the top of the
seventh, shut out on two hits by Diamondbacks starter Patrick Corbin
(5-6). Frazier doubled with one out and scored on Heisey's fifth home
run of the season.
"I was sitting on a fastball, and I
got it," Heisey said .
With two out, Navarro roped
his home run inside the left-field foul pole to give the Reds the lead.
In the eighth, Phillips and Heisey went deep off reliever Matt
Albers.
Latos got his first win since Aug. 3 against
Pittsburgh and his first at Arizona since August
2010.
The balk in the first allowed Aaron Hill to
score from third base with two out to give the Diamondbacks a 1-0 lead.
Jake Elmore's two-out RBI double in the fourth put Arizona up 2-0, but
Latos retire 10 of the next 12 batters he faced.
The
Diamondbacks lost their sixth straight and eight of 10 on their
homestand to drop three games below .500 for the first time since July
20.
Corbin allowed three runs and six hits in 6 2-3
innings, striking out eight in his first career start against the
Reds.
"Not a lot is going right. It's not a good
feeling," Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson said. "The more you search,
the tougher it gets at
times."
NOTES: Reds 1B Joey Votto,
recovering from left knee surgery, was scheduled to play in his second
rehab game for Class A Dayton on Wednesday. Expected to be activated on
Saturday, he went 0 for 1 with a walk in five innings in his first game
for Dayton on Tuesday. ... Arizona RHP Josh Collmenter pitched four
scoreless innings Tuesday in his third rehab game with the club's rookie
league team. Collmenter is on the 15-day disabled list with ulcers. ...
INF Willie Bloomquist (lower back injury) got two at-bats in a rehab
game Tuesday and was expected to play again Wednesday. Bloomquist will
travel with Arizona to Los Angeles when the Diamondbacks start their
next road trip, a sign that he might be ready to come off the disabled
list in the coming days. ... Arizona manager Kirk Gibson said he's
rooting for starting pitcher Wade Miley, an All-Star this season, to win
the NL Rookie of the Year award. Miley is 14-9 with a 2.85 ERA. Two
keys, Gibson said, are that Miley is aggressive in his approach to
hitters and hits his spots with pitches.
