Long man Carlos Fisher, who lost for the third time in as many appearances, entered the game for the Reds. Fisher had extended outings on the road trip in 19-inning and 12-inning road losses. Former Red, Juan Castro, singled to right. Navarro bunted him to second. Tony Gwynn grounded a single into left but Heisey charged to to keep Castro at third. Carrol's fourth single put the Dodgers in front. Miles singled off the right field wall and Gwynn scored. Eithier hit a one hopper back to the mound but Fisher threw high in an attempt at a double play. Carrol scored. Kemp hit a one hopper to first but Fisher failed to cover first. It was the sixth RBI of the game for Kemp.
Fisher has been asked to do a lot and fought hard in the two losses. This time it just wasn't his day and he knew it.
"It was a real tough way to lose it," Fisher said. "They had some ground balls that found holes but throwing the ball away and not covering first base, you can't do that up here. I kind of babied the throw to secondbase. I should have made a stronger throw. It wasn't my day."
This inning should not have happened.
Before the game Dusty Baker talked about how the bullpen was pitching well but he had to use it more than he wanted too. The game illustrated what happens to an overused bullpen.
"It was a tough way to lose it. This game turned in a minute," Baker said.
.Nick Masset relieved Cueto with a 7-2 lead. Masset had allowed one run in his last 15 appearances, covering 14 1/3 innings. That hot streak came to a crashing halt. Masset struck out Navarro but pinch hitter, Tony Gwynn Jr. singled to right. Carrol singled on a hit and run for his third hit of the game. Miles drove in his second run with a single. Dusty Baker matched up Ethier with lefthander Bill Bray, who has also been effective. Ethier coaxed a walk to load the bases. Big Logan Ondrusek came out of the pen like "Tall thin Jones" in a country song. Alas, he didn't save the hoop skirted lady from the railroad track, instead Kemp took the big Texan to the Reds bullpen. Kemp's 15th home run tied the game at seven.
"I made a bad pitch," Ondrusek said. "It was supposed to be a fastball in but it was over the plate. You can come out with good stuff and get beat and you can have nothing and get outs. We (bullpen) didn't do our job today. Kemp got the pitch and did what he was supposed to do. He's been doing it all year."
Johnny Cueto has been sensational since his return from the disabled list.
He pitched seven innings and allowed two runs on five hits. Cueto pitched eight innings in a hard luck 2-1 loss to Atlanta on Sunday. This outing like the one in Atlanta was wasted this time it wasn't the offense that was the culprit.
It was his fifth quality start in six outings.
"Johnny pitched great," Baker said.
Cueto's mound opponent was Clayton Kershaw. The youthful Dodger lefthander just happened to lead the National League with a 2.62 ERA as the game started.
Kershaw, who was coming off a complete game, shutout win over the Florida Marlins, gave Cueto little hope of reversing his fortunes. Kershaw face the minimum 15 batters through five innings. Joey Votto singled with two outs in the fourth but Kershaw picked him off. Then the 22-year old struck out Scott Rolen, Jay Bruce and Jonny Gomes in the fifth to raise his strike out total to nine.
The Dodgers scratched a run off Cueto in the third inning. Dioner Navarro was the third of four straight leadoff batters to reach against Cueto. Navarro's single was followed by a sacrifice bunt by Kershaw. Paul Janish delayed the scoring by making a diving stop of Jamie Carrol's high hard ground ball up the middle but he had no play. Aaron Miles hit a sacrifice fly that looked like the game winner with Kershaw's dominance.
The Texas native seemed to wilt in the 91 degree heat. Ramone Hernandez singled through the hole at shortstop. Janish flied out. Cueto sacrificed Hernandez into scoring position. Drew Stubbs walked, the first issued by Kershaw. Brandon Phillips, who had a sore wrist and was out of the lineup on Friday, singled to snap an 0-for13 slump. Hernandez scored the tying run. Votto hit a 1-2 pitch into the seats in right field and the Reds took a three-run lead.
Matt Kemp hit his 14th home run of the year off Cueto to get the Dodgers back to within two runs but Cueto finished the inning strong by getting the next three batters in a row.
The Reds finished off Kershaw in the seventh. Jay Bruce singled to center. Gomes flied to center. Hernandez drew Kershaw's second walk. Janish singled to right but Andre Eithier threw Bruce out at the plate as Hernandez took third and Janish second. Chris Heisey batted for Cueto and dumped a two-run single into shallow center. Stubbs delivered Heisey with a double to the left center field gap to give the Reds a 7-2 lead.
"We had to go get those runs and we got them," Baker said. "It shows you that you can't have enough runs."
Matt Guerrier started the ninth for Los Angeles. Pinch hitter Miguel Cairo flied out to right. Ramon Hernandez bunted to get on base but the bunt kicked foul 45' up the thirdbase line. Hernandez took a full swing and singled up the middle. Mike Leake ran for Hernandez. Janish fouled out to thirdbase. Heisey flied out routinely to Kemp in center field.
Francisco Cordero started the 10th for the Reds. Cordero had better luck with Kemp than his predecessors, striking out Kemp on 3-2 pitch. Casey Blake walked. Blake was running on a 1-1 pitch to James Loney. Stubbs ran the ball down in shallow center field and doubled off Blake with a throw to Votto.
Phillips singled off Javy Guerra with one out in the 10th. Votto walked as the ball got away from Navarro. Phillips had an idea about going for third but stopped and had to dive back into secondbase. Rolen flied out to shallow center. Guerra retired Bruce on a hard one hopper to secondbase.
The Reds got the tying run to the plate against Guerra, who got his first major league win but Phillips lined out to right with runners on first and second and a run in.
"We had chances to win it but didn't get the big hit," Baker said.
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