The fact the Reds were 5-2 over a span of seven straight one-run games through Sunday was impressive to Eric Davis, but he wants to see the team do better, like 7-0, and do it in April, May and June -- when it counts.
"Our main objective here is to change the mentality," said Davis, the former Reds superstar outfielder now traveling with the team as an unofficial coach. The mentality, of course, is a losing one -- eight straight years of it. "That's what we're working on, how to win, what it takes to win," he said. "We lost a one-run game in Milwaukee Wednesday that we should have won and we lost a one-run game Friday in Arizona we should have won. Those games make a huge difference over the course of a season.
"We need to learn what to do and what not to do in those kinds of games," he said. "My message to young players is to do what you can do and don't try to do more and don't do less.
"We have the core players here to be good. Just a piece here and a piece there and change the mentality."
The six straight one-run games isn't close to a record, not even a franchise record. The 1967 Reds played 11 straight one-run games.
"The only way to learn how to play one-run games is to play in them," manager Dusty Baker said. "And you can learn something from the losses, too."
The Reds are 26-18 in one-run games this year.
REDS 2, DIAMONDBACKS 1 (10 innings): CF Corey Patterson hit the foul pole with a 10th-inning home run that broke a 1-1 tie and also broke a streak of 19 straight Reds retired. RF Jay Bruce led off the fourth with a home run, then 19 straight went down before Patterson's one-out game-winner against RHP Jon Rauch, enabling the Reds to finish their road trip at 4-2, just their third winning road trip this season.
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