Choo On This Atlanta; Choo Hits Two Home Runs to Present 1,600th Win to Baker

Shin-Soo Choo took one of the National League's best closers 400 feet to left centerfield to give the Reds its 19th win of the season.  It put Reds' manager Dusty Baker into 18th place on the All-Time list for managers with his 1,600th career win in a 5-4 ninth inning comeback thriller.

"It just means I've been around for a long time," Baker said.

Homer Bailey got off to a rough start but held on long enough to keep the team in the game.  Two walks in the first inning and two-out singles by Brian McCann and Dan Uggla gave the Atlanta Braves an early 3-0 lead.

http://www.wiedemannbeer.com/

Choo got the first hit off Braves' starter Kris Medlen.  It was Choo's sixth of the season.


The Braves scored another run off Bailey in the fifth but the Reds got it back in the bottom of the inning on Donald Lutz's pinch-hit single.

Singles by Zack Cozart and Joey Votto put runners on the corners with one out.  Brandon Phillips' sacrifice fly made it a 4-3 game in the eighth and put him in a tie with John Buck for the most RBIs in the National League.

The marker also set up a dramatic finish thanks to the bullpen work of Sam LeCure, Sean Marshall and Jonathan Broxton.  The trio kept Atlanta from crossing the plate over the last four innings.

"They did their jobs," Baker said.  "It is one of those things that if they give up runs everyone notices but when they don't, they are unheralded unless they are the closer."

Craig Kimbrel under the tutelage of Colerain High School graduate and Brave's pitching coach, Roger McDowell, was making his bid to become the youngest pitcher to notch 100 careers saves at 24.

It looked like the hard-throwing Kimbrel would pick up his second save in as many nights when he struck out Jack Hannahan and Corky Miller.  Kimbrel fell behind pinch hitter Devin Mesoraco 3-1 before catching the corner with a 95-mile an hour pitch for strike two.

Kimbrel's payoff pitch was down in the strike zone but Mesoraco got the barrel of the bat on it and hit a majestic fly into the first row of seats in right centerfield.

"Not every home run is hit off a bad pitch," Baker said.

No sooner had the crowd quieted from the euphoria of tying the game when Choo hit his second home run to touch off a celebration at home plate.

It was the Reds' league-leading 13th home win and the seventh win in the last at bat.

Professionally edited by ML Schirmer
for proof reading services call
513-240-3120