Jay Bruce Perks Up In Reds Win

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Jay Bruce was lost.

With two full days off Bruce was able to find himself.  The Reds' rightfielded hit a two-run home run and drove in a third run with a sacrifice fly.  He was on base with walks thrice in the Reds' 9-6 ambush of the Milwaukee Brewers.

"It is all boils down to swinging at the right pitches," Bruce said. "I key is to wait a little longer to give yourself a chance. I had to slow down and go through my checkpoints.  Sometimes you get our of whack. I didn't think I was going to hit .160 all year."

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Todd Frazier walked to open the second inning.  He was batting fourth int a re-configured lineup in which Zack Cozart moved to second in the order. Joey Votto and Frazier moved down a spot and Brandon Phillips, who had no extra-base hits entering the game, was dropped to sixth and the struggling Marlon Byrd to seventh.

"Jay had some good at bats. He took some tough pitches," manager Bryan Price said. "There were a lot of positives offensively.  Brandon hit a ball on a line and they made a catch against the fence before he hit the double in the gap."

Logan Schafer made a leaping catch against the wall to rob Phillips of a double.

The offense seemed to respond but wildness by Jimmy Nelson, the Brewers' young starter contributed to seven runs in the third and fourth innings.  Nelson walked five of the 17 batters he faced in just 2 1/3 innings.

The Reds had no hits in its last 23 at-bats with a runner in scoring position until starting pitcher Jason Marquis singled on a high chop past drawn-in thirdbaseman, Aramis Ramirez.

Cozart tripled leading off the sixth. He later scored on a long fly to center by Bruce.  Frazier was on base three time by walk and was hit by a pitch.  He scored three runs and stole two bases.

Meanwhile, Jason Marquis gave up two runs through eight innings. He allowed seven hits but induced three double play ground balls..

Marquis pitched against the Brewers in the 16-10 Reds' win last Tuesday.

"I didn't do a good job of getting shutdown innings the last time," Marquis said.  "They were pretty aggressive last time.  When my sinker's working I get a lot of ground balls.  I try not to change the way I pitch. I just hadn't done a good job of shutting down teams in my first few starts.  The defense played great behind me tonight."

"Strikeouts are fine but Jason got a lot of ground ball outs early in the count," Price said.

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Burke Badenhop continues to struggle.  He entered the game in the ninth inning with a 9-2 lead and promptly walked the first batter.  Three singles later the Brewers had the bases loaded and two runs in.

Price went to Aroldis Chapman, who hit a batter to load the bases, then gave up a ground ball, two-run single to Jean Segura before he struck out pinch hitters Luis Jimenez and Ryan Braun to close out the game.

"I wasn't going to let the game get away," Price said. "Aroldis hadn't been up at all the last two days.  It wasn't a save situation but it turned into one."

Chapman would have had to come in with the tying run on deck to get credit for a save.  A pitcher can not be credited with a save if he creates a save situation himself.