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Tuesday, Jul. 18 7:05pm ET
Dessens picks up win for Reds | |||||
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GAME LOG
DETROIT (AP) -- Dmitri Young looked at the empty locker next to his and shook his head. The locker had belonged to Hal Morris. Now it was empty and Morris was gone. Young had three hits and two RBI, including a solo homer, as the Cincinnati Reds beat the Detroit Tigers 5-4 Tuesday night to avert a three-game sweep. But while that was going on, the Tigers were acquiring Morris for cash. The Tigers announced the deal during the sixth inning. "I mean, he was right here," Young said, sweeping his arm toward the locker that still bore Morris' name on a piece of white tape. "You try to put these things out of your mind. But you find yourself asking, 'Who's going to be next?"' Six days earlier, the Reds had traded pitcher Denny Neagle to the New York Yankees. But at least that deal was done after business hours. "Hal came up to me, about the fifth inning, I guess it was, and said, 'I'll see you,"' Reds manager Jack McKeon said. "He said they had called him up into the clubhouse and told him. I said, 'Well, who's team are you on?' He said, 'I'm not sure."' For the record, since he went into the game on the Reds' roster, Morris could only have played for the Reds in this contest. The first baseman did not play. However, Jim Schmakel, the Tigers' clubhouse manager, said he could have had a Detroit jersey ready for Morris. "Normally, I couldn't have done it that fast," Schmakel said. "But it just happens that I had a seamstress here tonight. She could have had one ready by the ninth, probably." Morris, who played his college ball a few miles away at the University of Michigan, said he wandered into the Tigers' clubhouse after he got the news. He said he sat for a while and chatted with Detroit slugger Juan Gonzalez, who was put on the disabled list earlier in the day. "Our clubhouse man said he'd never seen anything like it," Morris said. Morris has started only five games this season, but Detroit manager Phil Garner said he would play him right away in place of injured Tony Clark. "He can play first, outfield and pinch hit," Garner said. "We plan to play him at first." Elmer Dessens (2-0), making his third start of the season, gave up four runs on seven hits and three walks in 5 2/3 innings. Danny Graves, the fourth Reds pitcher, worked the ninth for his 16th save in 17 opportunities. Brian Moehler (6-6), who had a complete-game victory over Houston in his last start, gave up five runs on 12 hits with no walks in six innings. Cincinnati broke a 3-all tie with two runs on four hits in the sixth. Pokey Reese blooped an RBI double down the left-field line to drive in Young. Reese scored on an RBI single by Chris Stynes. "I don't know what we're going to do without Hal in the clubhouse," Reese said. "It's just another piece of the puzzle that's gone." Luis Polonia's run-scoring double narrowed the gap to 5-4 in the bottom of the sixth. The Reds, who were 4-for-21 with runners in scoring position during the first two games of the series, also tagged Moehler for two runs on four hits in the first inning. Stynes, who started the game with a double, scored on Dante Bichette's RBI single. Young singled Bichette across for a 2-0 lead. With two out in the third, Young made it 3-0 with his 10th homer. "I wasn't exactly looking to hit that guy," said Young, who is 10-for-21 through the first six games of this road trip. "He just happened to leave a pitch out there I could handle." Detroit made it 3-1 in the bottom of the third on Bobby Higginson's RBI double that drove in Polonia. The Tigers tied it at 3 in the fourth. Juan Encarnacion, who reached when he was hit by a pitch by Dessens, scored from first on a double up the gap in right-center by Brad Ausmus. Damion Easley's RBI single scored Ausmus. Game notesStynes extended his hitting streak to a career-best 11 games. ... Ken Griffey Jr., who went hitless in his first 12 at-bats in the series against Detroit, finally reached on an infield single in the sixth. He grounded to first in the ninth to finish the series 1-for-14, leaving 15 runners on base as his average dropped to 238. ... Detroit's Eric Munson made his major league debut as a defensive replacement at first base in the ninth. | ALSO SEE Baseball Scoreboard Cincinnati Clubhouse Detroit Clubhouse RECAPS Colorado 18 Oakland 3
Cincinnati 5
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