Cincinnati relishes pacing the race

[Jamie_B]

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100614&content_id=11176816&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

[quote]

CINCINNATI -- Reds manager Dusty Baker sat at his desk and leaned to the right, picking up a lineup card so he could go down the list and point out who on his team has playoff experience.

The list isn't a long one for the first-place Reds: Scott Rolen, Orlando Cabrera, Jonny Gomes, Miguel Cairo, Arthur Rhodes, Bronson Arroyo, Ramon Hernandez and Micah Owings. That's it.

The rest of the roster finds itself in a new situation.

"This is the first time a lot of these guys have been in a pennant race," Baker said. "We've got a few guys here, but most of them have not been in a pennant race. They're still learning how to be in this pennant race. A lot of them are learning how to be in first place."

Cincinnati entered its off-day on Monday with a 1 1/2-game lead on St. Louis in the National League Central. Although there is a long way to go with 98 games left in the regular season, it's the latest the Reds have been in first place since June 17, 2002.

Each team lost two of three to sub-.500 teams over the weekend -- Cincinnati to Kansas City and the Cardinals to Arizona. St. Louis begins a three-game series with Seattle on Monday night, but no matter the result, the Reds will enter their three-game series hosting the Dodgers with the division lead.

Coming into Monday, the Cardinals had lost six of seven games, including a three-game sweep at the hands of the Dodgers. The Reds took two of three from Los Angeles in April but have had their share of trouble in the series. In 2008 and '09, Cincinnati went just 2-12 against Los Angeles.

The Dodgers were one of the few teams hotter than the Reds in May, and although they sit in second place in the NL West, they're a group used to winning. They've battled for division titles and won the NL West two years in a row. In both seasons, they advanced to the NL Championship Series.

"I'm a believer in experience," Rolen said. "You can't teach that experience. You've got to be there and be in the action to get it. If you're in the league one or two years and you're in first place, obviously that's a new experience. It's the place to be though. Second place isn't the place to be at any point during the season. First place is where you want to be and where you want to stay."

Rolen played for the Cardinals in three playoff seasons and helped guide them to the 2006 World Series championship.

He knows what it's like to be in a playoff race day after day, but though many of his teammates are new to the situation, he said he's started to feel some of the same vibes in Cincinnati that he felt in some of the best years in St. Louis.

"I'm sensing there's a nice feeling and a nice expectation amongst the guys that, while the game's going on, we're kind of figuring out how we're going to win this," Rolen said. "There are times and teams where you're always wondering when the next shoe is going to fall and 'How are we going to lose this?' I think we're in a spot now where we have confidence when we go out there that when we're down a few runs or we're down a run or we lose the lead, I think there's no panic."

The stats back up Rolen's feeling. The Reds continue to make late-game rallies, as they own 22 comeback victories and 12 wins in their final at-bat.

Rolen said it's a feeling he especially remembers from 2004, when the Cardinals won 105 games before losing to the Red Sox in the World Series.

"How's this one going to work out for us?" Rolen said, explaining the mentality. "It's just something's going to happen; we're going to win this game. ... When in St. Louis, that was the feeling we had. We'd be down 3-0 going into the fifth, and it wasn't spoken, just kind of like, 'Well, we need four. How are we going to get our four?' And it happened."

Of course, Rolen and the Reds are battling for the division crown with that same Cardinals club that is loaded with playoff experience.

Instead of being stuck in the middle of the pack, the Reds are now a team out front -- like the Cards have been for much of the past decade. No one is going to be surprised by a team leading the league in just about every offensive category.

"When you're in first place, nobody overlooks you, and everybody plays their best game," Baker said. "You elevate everybody else, and nobody takes you for granted anymore. You're not sneaking up on anybody. This is a big learning curve for a lot of guys -- what to do in certain situations."

Rolen said the act of winning as a team indirectly helps everyone as individuals. Because players are so often judged by numbers, Rolen said players can sometimes take individual approaches at the plate early in their careers and when their teams aren't winning.

Numbers can be the difference between the Majors and the Minors or a new contract or new team, therefore fostering individualistic attitudes.

However, winning rubs off on everyone.

"When you group together and start playing a little baseball and start winning and know what it feels like, it's, 'We need to find a way to win this game,'" Rolen said. "You start putting more concentrated, more focused at-bats together for the game situation, for the competition. Watch what your numbers do when you put at-bats together for numbers, as opposed to competitive at-bats for your games, for your team. You'll find those numbers [competitive at-bats] are a lot higher than the other numbers." [/quote]