Joe Burns took the mound and faced off against Jeff Whitehead. The Peppers went quietly in the 1st stranding a runner at second. The Reds got off to a quick start with singles by Miles and Hall to score a run. Mitchell traded places with Hall and with 2 outs Shaw singled and Burns reached to load the bases on an E6 and runners were safe all around. Knipper came to the plate with two outs and delivered with the big single to knock in two more runs. Knipper stole 2nd to put two more in scoring position but Whitehead helped his own cause getting a 1-3 to end the inning and Hold the Reds to a 3-0 score after one.
The Peppers came up in the 2nd inning with their clean-up hitter Mike Arbour hitting a line drive shot into left field and promptly stealing second and getting in scoring position. Tony Mogavaro followed with a single to the outfield scoring the speedy Arbour. Allen then hid a hard shot down the third base line that Hall was able to fire off to second and on to first for the 5-4-3 DP. A fly out and Reds were able to limit the Peppers to just one run. The reds went quietly in the second with 3 up and 3 down with a score of 3-1 after two.
In the third Burns made quick work of the first two batters. Harold Jenking then came up and worked the count full before hitting a single to left bringing up the top of the order for the Peppers. Freer, the lead-off hitter, then hit a shot toward the gap but Kenny Shaw raced toward left and caught the ball on the run and ending the Peppers half of the inning. In the bottom half the Reds came up with the leadoff hitter Pauly Miles hitting a single and promptly stealing two bases for a total of three in 2 plate appearances. Friedman worked a walk and the Reds looked to be in business again. Hall then hit a pop up behind first. With runners holding the ball found a spot between fielders and runners were moving. The ball was fielded on a bounce by Dave Reed or Frank Kierben who fired the ball to force a play at the plate. There was a slide with dirt flying and Arbour got the tag on the runner sliding by just before the plate to keep the Reds form extending the lead. A quick 4-3 and there were two outs with runners on second and third. Shaw came up and worked the count full and Whitehead threw a nasty breaking ball that fooled the batter but also the catcher and Shaw raced to first and beat just the throw allowing Friedman to score pushing the lead to four before the Peppers could record the third out making the score 4-1 after three.
In the fourth the Reds changed pitchers and the veteran CB Abrams came in for his first appearance of the season. A ground ball to third by Koster and an error and the saw that ever important lead-off hitter on first to start the inning. A PB and a WP and the speedy Koster was on third with the 3-4-5 hitters coming up. A pop up into shallow left center was tracked down by Friedman holding the runner at third. Dave Reed followed with a hit up the middle that was fielded by the second baseman. With the Koster speeding toward the plate the throw went to first for the second out and the Peppers had their second run cutting the Reds lead in half. Another hit to short and the top half of the inning was over with a score of 4-2. Whitehead got two quick ground balls before giving up a single to John Reel but was able to record the K to strand the runner at first and finish his work from the mound with 3Ks. and keep the score unchanged. Abrams got a 5-3 groundout before walking his 1st batter of the game. The next batter hit a pop up in the sun toward first that Mitchell was able chase down. With two outs the next two batters took inside pitches for the team and bases were suddenly loaded. Abrams threw a couple strikes and a couple balls. With the bases loaded and two outs and the count filling up, there was a pick-off attempt and the runner at third got caught and just like that the threat was over. The Reds dodged a bullet. With that momentum, the Reds had some speed coming up and decided to take advantage of the speed and the Vliet grass. Jim Jaz bunted. With Plew expecting it he raced off the mound to quickly field th. The race was on with a quick fielding of the ball and firing it off to first with the runner racing to first. It was a bang-bang play and depending on which red jersey you were wearing determined what you believed. If was in the Umps hand and (I believe he was correct) Jaz was safe. With Miles up Jaz took off for second and Miles laid down another perfect bunt and both runners were safe. Then the predicted rain finally showed up with a steadily increased through the Reds half of the inning. Friedman followed with a single to load the bases. Hall then followed with a single to knock in a run and keep the bases loaded. A fly out to third and a sac fly by Shaw pushed another run across. A single by Burns increased the total to three for the inning. Knipper was grazed by a pitch to load the bases but a fly out to center ended the scoring for the Reds with a 7-4 lead. The rain passed and the Reds brought in Friedman to face the last batter and then the top of the line-up and to try to keep the Peppers off balance. Jeff struck out the first batter before Freer walked and Koster reached on a rare catcher's interference (his second of the game) and quickly the Peppers were threatening with one out and the 3-4-5 batters due up. A fly out to first and a 6-3 and the inning was over with the unchanged. The Peppers made a pitching change and called on Dave Reed. A couple of walks to Reel and Draves before Reed got the next batter off balance with a weak pop up to 2nd. A fly out to left and a walk the Friedman and the Reds had the bases loaded again. But with 2 outs Reed got another pop up to second to keep the Reds off the board with the score unchanged after six complete. Friedman came out in the seventh throwing hard. He struck out the first two batters before walking the third batter. With two outs Jeff closed things out with his third strike out of the inning and a 7-4 win for the Reds over the Red Hot Peppers.
