CINCINNATI - The Marlins only seemed to have one timely hit in them on Saturday.
Placido Polanco hit a tying double for Miami in the fifth inning, but the Marlins couldn't get another run across for eight more innings, until Brandon Phillips had a game-ending sacrifice fly in the 13th inning, giving the Cincinnati Reds a 3-2 victory over the Miami Marlins on Saturday.
Before Polanco tied it, though Juan Pierre lined out to third baseman Todd Frazier, who caught Joe Mahoney off first for a double play.
"If I get that bunt down the game is over," said Pierre, who struck out looking three times. He is the toughest active player to strike out, fanning just once every 17.47 plate appearances for his career. It was the sixth time he struck out three times in a game and he did it for the second consecutive game.
"It's been ugly this season and this caps it off," Pierre said. "At least Polanco picked us up so we got one run. It was all me. I have to get that bunt down."
In the 13th, Shin-Soo Choo led off with an opposite-field double against Steve Cishek (1-2), for his sixth time on base in seven plate appearances. Zack Cozart sustained an apparent right-hand injury while trying to bunt, and pinch-hitter Cesar Izturis moved Choo to third with a fly ball to centre field. Joey Votto was intentionally walked, and Phillips 鈥� on his bobblehead day 鈥� lofted the fly to centre field.
Alfredo Simon (1-1) retired the Marlins in order to get the win.
Votto led off the third inning against left-hander Wade LeBlanc with a 353-foot line drive into the right field seats adjacent to the visitors' bullpen on a 2-0 pitch, giving the Reds a 1-0 lead. The homer was his second of the season and first at Great American Ball Park since June 24.
Votto lined a two-out single to right field in the fourth inning to drive in Devin Mesoraco for a 2-0 lead. Mesoraco led off with single, moved to second on Arroyo'a sacrifice and, after Choo walked, went to third on Cozart's fielder's choice to shortstop Nick Green.
LeBlanc allowed seven hits and two runs with three walks and two strikeouts in four innings.
"It was terrible," LeBlanc said. "The silver lining was I kept us close enough to tie. I needed to save the bullpen and I did the opposite."
Bronson Arroyo, who was 1-4 with a 4.28 ERA in 14 career appearances against the Marlins coming in, allowed six hits and two runs with one walk and a season-high six strikeouts in eight innings.
LeBlanc allowed seven hits and two runs with three walks and two strikeouts in four innings.
The Marlins bullpen made enough pitches to strand nine Reds' base runners over their eight plus innings, including three in the seventh.
"We pitched great. We got some big outs," Redmond said. "It was the same old story. We couldn't come up with the big hit."
Giancarlo Stanton managed an infield single in six at-bats. He has yet to drive in a run this season.
"He is an unbelievable player. He is going to hit," Redmond said. "He's our big bat. He's just in a funk and we've got to get him out of it."
NOTES: The crowd gave Arroyo a standing ovation after a message on the video board said that his second-inning strikeout of Justin Ruggiano was his 1,000th with the Reds. Arroyo finished the game with 1,004 strikeouts in his Cincinnati career, passing 1960s LHP Jim O'Toole for ninth place in franchise history. ... Olivo, who spent most of spring training with the Reds as a non-roster player, started at catcher for Miami. ... Marlins RF Giancarlo Stanton snapped an 0-for-7 skid, five-strikeout slump with an infield single in the fourth inning. ... Mesoraco's fourth-inning throwing error snapped at 10 the Reds streak of consecutive error-free games, dating back to the sixth inning on April 8 at St. Louis.
