Reds Shave The Magic Number Mike Leake and Brandon Phillips Star

Mike Leake has had his problems of late but pitched on of his better games to notch his eighth victory.

The righthander gave up a pair of home runs among his nine hits but aided by the glove work of his teammates pitched seven innings in the Reds' 5-3 win over the sinking Pirates.

Brandon Phillips, who had a heart-to-heart with Pittsburgh reliever Jared Hughes before the game, canceled Alex Presley's first inning home run off Leake with his own home run, a leadoff shot.  The blast off Pittsburgh starter, Kevin Correia, was his 17th long ball of the season and first since moving back into the leadoff spot.

"When they scored, we really wanted to put some runs on the board," Phillips said.  "I'm surprised it went out.  I hit is hard but not high."


The Reds piled on in the second inning.  Dioner Navarro walked.  One out later Leake singled to start a 2-for-2 night at the plate with a sacrifice.  He is now hitting .286 for the season.  Phillips doubled to score Navarro.  Leake scored on a wild pitch and when Correia threw home to get Leake the ball eluded catcher Michael McKenry and Phillips scored.

Leake guarded the lead with the help of two double plays and a perfectly executed cutoff play in the fifth inning.  Clint Barmes doubled to leadoff the fifth.  Correia popped up the attempt to sacrifice.  Brock Holt singled to right.  Jay Bruce charged and threw home as Barmes rounded third but held.  Holt trying to force a cutoff, Joey Votto cut the throw and flipped it back to Phillips, who snuck in behind Holt.  Phillips with his back to the runner tagged Holt between his legs.

"That was the game right there to tell you the truth," Phillips said.  "That gave me a breather," Leake said.

The Reds have been playing winning defense all season and manager Dusty Baker acknowledged the defense and the base running.

"We played good defense and ran the bases well.  That's what you have to do. It isn't hitting all the time that wins you games," Baker said.  "We have been 29 games over before and that's good but we've tried to get to 30 over .500 five times and that would be even better."

Leake had been roughed up in his last two outings by the Philadelphia Phillies but rebounded against the Pirates, turning in his 16th quality start among the 28 games he's started.

"I try to do that every time out but the Phillies have my number," Leake said. "This felt good."

Leake has been the victim of three blown saves this season but the Reds' bullpen has been strong for the most part all season.

"You see my sign on the wall over there," Baker said. "The two most important things are good friends and a good bullpen and not necessarily in that order."

Leake allowed a pinch hit home run to Gabby Sanchez with a runner on and two outs in the seventh before leaving the game with seven innings of nine-hit, three-run baseball.

Logan Ondrusek, Sean Marshall and closer for the day, Jonathan Broxton, who earned his first for the Reds combined to get the last six outs.

Broxton is closing games temporarily to allow the fatigued left shoulder of Aroldis Chapman to rest.

"We knew we might have to use him to close sometimes when we got him (in a trade with Kansas City).  We just didn't know it would be for this reason.  We knew there would be times when we needed him in that role," Baker said.

Broxton took it in stride having closed games for Los Angeles and Kansas City during his career.

"All outs are important.  The only difference in the ninth inning is you don't have anyone to back you up," Broxton said.

The win reduced the Reds' magic number to 11 and could drop to 10 if San Diego beats St. Louis on the west coast.  The Pirates still are in the wild card race but fell 13 games behind the Reds with 19 games to go.  Any combination of Reds' wins and Pirates' losses that add up to eight eliminate Pittsburgh from the division title.