The "D" Men Shine For Cincinnati In Miami

Dioner Navarro and Didi Gregorius are both from the Southern Caribean.  Navarro is from Caracas, Venezuela.  Gregorius is from Wilamstad, Curacao.  The two are 175 miles apart bascially the distance from Cincinnati to Canton

The "D" men were instrumental in the Reds' effort to salvage the third of a three game series in brand new Marlins Park against the nothing-to-lose Marlins.
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The Reds lost the first two games of the series and rested Wilson Valdez and Ryan Hanigan Sunday. Navarro and Gregorius combined for six hits in 11 at bats, each had an RBI, including the first Run Batted In for Gregorius career.

Ryan Ludwick drove in two runs including the game winner.  He hit his first home run in nearly a month Saturday night in a losing effort.

The Reds scored a run in the second inning on a single by Gregorius to lead for the first time in the series.

Mat Latos, from nearby Coconut Creek High, failed to protect a 2-0 lead and was lucky the Marlins didn't pass the Reds.  Jose Reyes reached on an infield hit in spite of an excellent stop by Gregorius.  Navarro threw out Reyes by partially blocking a pitch in the dirt and recovering the ball in time to throw out Reyes.  The out put Latos in great shape in the fourth inning.  He had no one on base and two outs but that changed quickly.

Latos was cautious with Ginacarlo Stanton, walking the man second in the NL with 34 home runs.  That is telling in this giant ball park  Latos also walked Carlos Lee, who burned Johnny Cueto with a long two-run home run Saturday night that was the difference in the game.  The free passes made the margin of error too small.  Latos made a good pitch to Greg Dobbs, who also was a thorn in the Reds' side in the series.  Dobbs broke his bat but the ball hit just inside the right field line and rolled to the rightfield corner for a triple, tying the score.

The Reds got two more on RBI singles by Ludwick and Navarro.

Lee lofted a ball to right, a bloop that Jay Bruce's diving effort was not enough to maintain control of the ball.  Lee was on second with a leadoff double.  He went to third on Dobbs' ground out.  Lee then barely beat Chris Heisey's throw home on a fly to medium center hit by Donovan Solano.   The Marlins tied the game in the eighth when Reyes nearly missed a home run on a blast high off the rightfield wall that scored former Reds' number one draft choice, Austin Kearns, who opened the inning with a pinch hit single.

The Reds had 13 hits but stranded 10 runners.  The missed opportunities was responsible for the forced overtime. They missed a golden opportunity in the 10th against Heath Bell, one of nine pitchers manager Ozzie Guillen used in this roster expanded September game.

Gregorius hit his third single of the game with one out.  Xavier Paul hit a pinch hit single that set the Reds up with a first and third with one out.  Brandon Phillips, who has struggled since moving back to the leadoff spot, hit a one-hop ground ball back to Bell, who started a 1-6-3 double play.

The Reds' bullpen was again fantastic.  Sam LeCure extracted the Reds from trouble in the eighth in relief of Latos.  He turned in a clean ninth.  Sean Marshall got two outs in the 10th then gave up a hit and a walk to Justin Ruggiano.  Reyes singled again on a two-strike pitch bringing Stanton to the plate again with the game on the line.  Dusty Baker called on Logan Ondrusek, who allowed nothing for his first 20 appearances of the season but ran out of gas mid-season.  Ondrusek fanned Stanton on an outstanding sinker.

Chris Heisey, who was 0-5, singled on a 3-1 pitch off Carlos Zambrano, who lost his job in the Marlin's starting rotation.  Zambrano had difficulty throwing strikes and it cost him.  He walked Joey Votto, then fell behind Ludwick.  Ludwick found a hole with a hard ground single to left.

Big Jonathan Broxton came out in the 11th for his second save attempt as a Red.  He got the first two out, backed by defensive replacement, Drew Stubbs, in center.  Solano worked a walk and brought up the eighth hitter in the lineup, John Buck,  with no pinch hitters left on the Miami bench  Buck was hitting .196 but had 10 home runs in 100 games.  Broxton got ahead in the count but Buck battled.  He worked the count full, fouled off two pay-off pitches.  He hit a long fly to center.  The deepest part of the park that has a wall that juts out just to the left of where the fly was hit.  The fleet Stubbs was there in plenty of time and came up with a leaping catch against the wall to seal the win.

The Reds cut the magic number to five games over St. Louis, three over both Pittsburgh and Milwaukee.