Johnny Cueto Bests His Mentor

Mario Soto taught Johnny Cueto nearly everything he knows.  The pair are constant companions during spring training and Soto was with Cueto a lot on the latter's travels through the minor leagues.

With seven innings of five hit, two run baseball against the Milwaukee Brewers, Cueto became the first righthanded pitcher to win 19 games since Jack Billingham in 1974 in the Reds' 4-2 win.

With some offensive help from Joey Votto and Jay Bruce among others and the game was never in doubt unless, you consider the scare of Cueto limping after running the bases in the Reds' two-run second inning.

"He scared the daylights out of us when he came up limping after he ran the bases," acting manager Chris Speier said.  "He was fine.  He really didn't want to come out after the seventh inning. Again you weigh out the risks and rewards and the risks were just to much.  He really went after it with his fastball."

Cueto was a little scared too.

"When I ran the first time, I felt a little something behind my hamstring," Cueto said. "I got scared to but as the game went along, it went away.  I told them I was ok and they trust what I say."

Soto won a career-high 18 games for a Reds' team that lost 92 games.  Cueto plans to call his mentor in the morning.

"It is too late to call him now," Cueto said.  "I will definitely call him and let him know I beat his record in Cincinnati now."

The inning Cueto ran the bases was a scoring one.

Jay Bruce, Chris Heisey, Drew Stubbs and Dioner Navarro hit singles in succession off rookie Mike Fiers. Navarro's hit scored Bruce and Heisey.  Cueto, who leads the team with 17 sacrifice bunts, bunted into the Brewers' shift.  Corey Hart fielded it and forced Stubbs at third, putting Cueto on base.  That is when he felt the hamstring.

Cueto allowed just two lonely singles in the first four innings and he picked one of them, Rickie Weeks off first base.  It was ninth base runner Cueto has caught napping this season.  Ryan Braun hit a two-out single in the fourth as Cueto struck out the side.  Carlos Gomez doubled with two outs in the fifth and scored on a single by Jean Segura, who the Brewers got in a trade for Zack Grienke from the Los Angeles Angels.

The Reds got that run back in the bottom of the inning.

Zack Cozart tripled off the left center field fence to open the inning.  Votto found a gap with his 41st double of the season.  Bruce doubled Votto home, establishing a new career high with his 98th RBI.

"I focus on controlling the things I can control and that's the work I do in the batting cage.  You can't control success. You can only put yourself in position to be successful," Bruce said.  "But I feel like I've done a better job of that but I'm still underachieving in my opinion."

The Washington Nationals lost to Philadelphia so the Reds are tied with them for the best record in baseball.

"We are going to do what we need to do to get ready for the playoffs," Speier said.  "Those things will take care of themselves."

"We have a good team and Washington has a good team," Bruce said.  "We have a competitive lineup, whoever we put out there.  We expect to win every game.  They (Washington) knows what they need to do and we know what we need to do."