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Reds rally keeps Brewers slumping

Sep 9, 2008 - 4:20 AM By David Cotey PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

MILWAUKEE (Ticker) -- The Cincinnati Reds played the role of spoiler on Monday.

Jeff Keppinger's two-run double in a three-run ninth inning gave the Reds a 5-4 victory over the struggling Milwaukee Brewers.

The Brewers (82-62) fell to 4 1/2 games behind the National League Central Division-leading Chicago Cubs (86-57) and are now just three games ahead of the Philadelphia Phillies (79-65) in the wild card race.

"Forget that. The only thing that matters is here, the game that goes on in this ballpark," Brewers manager Ned Yost said. "They're fighting. They're doing everything they can do. They're going through some tough times, but they're grinding and you just keep grinding until you catch some breaks and things go your way and put a winning streak together."

With the Reds trailing, 4-2, in the ninth, Jay Bruce and Wilkin Castillo singled off Brewers closer Salomon Torres, who then walked Chris Dickerson to load the bases with no outs.

After Torres (6-5) struck out pinch hitter Javier Valentin, Corey Patterson singled off Torres' foot, scoring Bruce and cutting the deficit to one. Keppinger then followed with his two-run double off the left field wall to give the Reds a 5-4 lead.

"It was bad timing to give up three runs in the ninth inning, but what can you do?" Torres said. "We need to keep fighting. I'm sure I'll get the same situation tomorrow, to save the game, and it's going to be business as usual."

Jared Burton (5-1) pitched a scoreless eighth for the win and former Brewers closer Francisco Cordero had a perfect ninth for his 28th save.

"Before the inning started (Reds first base coach) Billy Hatcher said, 'Hey, let's get three,' and we had a chance to get five," Reds manager Dusty Baker said. "I'm just glad we came back and won. The young guys really responded tonight."

With the score tied in the bottom of the second inning, Jason Kendall homered off Reds starter Edinson Volquez with a runner on to give the Brewers a 3-1 lead. The home run was Kendall's second of the year and first since June 11, which came at Houston against Tim Byrdak.

J.J. Hardy added his 23rd home run of the year off Volquez in the bottom of the fifth for a 4-1 lead for Milwaukee, which dropped to 2-6 on its current 10-game homestand.

"We had the game right where we wanted it," Yost said. "We had the pitcher (Torres) on the mound that we wanted. (Starter Dave Bush) pitched great, we scored some runs - it just didn't work out."

Bush rebounded from a rough outing against the New York Mets on Wednesday that included Ryan Church's first-inning grand slam. On Monday, he allowed two runs on seven hits and two walks with three strikeouts over eight solid innings.

"It felt good to bounce back, just to pitch better," Bush said. "It's getting down toward the end of the year and every game is important. I just tried to keep us in the game and give us a chance to win. Unfortunately, it didn't work out today, but we're playing fine. We're just not getting wins right now."

The 28-year-old righthander gave up an RBI hit to Castillo in the second inning, but escaped a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the fourth by getting Paul Bako to hit into a 1-2-3 double play and Volquez to pop up.

"We did it the hard way tonight," Baker said. "We had bases loaded, nobody out, and we didn't get any runs. We were hitting the ball pretty good off Bush, but we needed to come back in the ninth. It was nice to get that loss off Volquez."

Volquez, fresh off his career-high 13-strikeout effort at home against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday, allowed four runs on five hits in 5 2/3 innings. He struck out 10, his sixth double-digit strikeout effort of the season for the Reds, who have won four of five.