The Reds this season have already persevered when closer Ryan Madson was lost for the year with an elbow injury in Spring Training. When a knee injury knocked best player Joey Votto out for six weeks in July, they rallied and, yes, even prospered.
So what did Cincinnati do when ace Johnny Cueto was overtaken by back spasms two batters into his Game 1 start of the National League Division Series at AT&T Park on Saturday night?
They picked each other up and found a way through. In stunning fashion, the Reds prevented the Giants from capitalizing on their misfortune and got home runs from Brandon Phillips — who had three hits and three RBIs in a big night — and Jay Bruce. Then they held on to steal a 5-2 win in front of 43,492 vibrant fans and a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five series.
“We’re resilient. Tonight kind of epitomized our team,” Bruce said.
The victory over Giants ace Matt Cain snapped a seven-game postseason losing streak for the Reds. Coincidentally, it came on the 17th anniversary to the day when they won their previous postseason game over the Dodgers in a Game 3 sweep of the 1995 NLDS.
“It’s been that long?” Phillips replied. “It feels good, shows the fans that we will be playing more games in Cincinnati. All you can do is win for the city and for your teammates. And we all have the same mission: to get the ring. And I want to keep on doing that until I get the ring.”
Since 1995, when Division Series play began, the NLDS Game 1 winner has advanced to the League Championship Series 48 times (71 percent). Cincinnati already has home-field advantage, and the win puts big pressure on San Francisco to even the series Sunday.
But the 2012 NLDS could not have had a more ominous start for the Reds. To their dismay, Cueto grimaced in pain as he threw an 0-1 changeup for a strike to Marco Scutaro, only his eighth pitch of the game.
A 19-game winner in the regular season, Cueto signaled for the trainer and manager Dusty Baker, who had little choice but to pull his best pitcher from the game. Baker summoned Sam LeCure, and hoped for the best.
“You don’t like to see a guy hurting, and you say, ‘Oh no, what can happen again, kind of,'” Baker said. “But then you think about what happened with Joey Votto, and this is a resilient team, and they can pick each other up and go on.”
Votto missed six weeks after needing left knee surgery in mid-July to repair torn cartilage. The injury, ironically, happened at AT&T Park when Votto slid into third base on June 30.
Cueto’s outing was the new shortest postseason start in club history, breaking the record by Joey Jay, who lasted two-thirds of an inning while getting beat up in Game 5 of the 1961 World Series.
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