Reds Pound Tampa Bay Pitchers

The Reds bats woke up this morning in a 12-4 win to salvage one game of the three-game series.

The Reds scored exactly one run against the Tampa Bay Rays in 18 innings.

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Zack Cozart, the Reds' player in the worst slump, broke through with a two-run double with the bases loaded after starting the season 2-for-31. The ground-rule double sent Devin Mesoraco, who walked to third.  Cingrani grounded to short with the infield in.  Mesoraco running on contact was thrown out at the plate.  Cingrani tried to get to second during the rundown but was cut off by catcher Ryan Hanigan's throw to the shortstop.  Yunel Escobar threw out Cozart at home to end the inning.

The hit started the Reds on an eight-run feeding frenzy against Cesar Ramos and four other Rays' pitchers.

Tony Cingrani started for the Reds and pitched in his 21st game without allowing more than five hits, however one of the five he surrendered was a two-run home run to Ben Zobrist.  Cingrani walked the ninth batter in the Rays' lineup, firstbaseman Sean Rodriguez.

Rays' manager Joe Maddon elected to bat Ramos in the eighth spot in the batting order.

"We don't know how long he'll go until the game starts but we don't expect him to go too deep so we may have pinch hit for him sooner than later," Maddon said.

The hook came for Ramos, who was replacing Matt Moore (elbow) in the starting rotation, was removed in two batters into the third.

Billy Hamilton led off with a sharp single to left.  Joey Votto, batting second for the second straight day, homered to the smokestacks in right center.  It was Votto's second home run of the year and doubled his RBI total from two to four.

Brandon Gomes replaced Ramos.

Brandon Phillips singled.  Todd Frazier, batting cleanup, forced Phillips at second with a ground ball to short.  Jay Bruce walked.  After Ryan Ludwick struck out, Devin Mesoraco crushed his second home run of the season into the upper deck in left.  Bruce doubled and scored from third later in the fifth on a sacrifice fly by Mesoraco.

"It is important to add on," said Mesoraco, who hit an 0-2 pitch 443 feet for his second home run. "I was surprised I got a pitch out over the plate. It was probably a mistake.  I think sometimes we put too much pressure on ourselves to do too much, telling yourself you have to do this or do that.  We have to bear down and not try to do too much."

Mesoraco is hitting a cool .500.

"Devin has plenty of pull power," Bryan Price said. "He also has power the other way and really battles.  He is a tough out with two strikes."

The 4-8 start has been filled with missed opportunities, stranding runners in scoring position.

"It is a small sample size. I don't know if you can say we aren't a good team with runners in scoring position."

The Reds have given away early leads also.  In two of the four losses to the Cardinals, the Reds held a 3-0 lead and a 4-0 lead.

"We've had games where we scored early and gave up the lead," Price said. "You never can feel you have the game in the bag. Dusty (Baker) used to say you want to keep adding on so that a grand slam won't hurt you.  I always remembered that.  Anything can happen in this game. A reliever could struggle with control or someone can lose a ball in the sun."

Cingrani gave up five hits and three walks in 6 1/3 innings but he struck out six.

Nick Christiani allowed a double to pinch hitter, James Loney and Zobrist's second home run of the game from the other side of the plate.

Chris Heisey added a pinch-hit grand slam home run off Covington, Kentucky native Josh Lueke in the eighth inning.

It was Heisey's first career grand slam and his seventh pinch-hit home run.

"Heisey's with the grand slam was big. To me pressure is self induced. We know we have a good team. You would like to see the guys relax and play the game they are capable of doing.  Today is an indication that we are getting closer," Price said.