"He had a good arm," Baker recalled Friday. "He had very good stuff. They told me he usually starts slow and finishes strong, so what you saw then probably isn't going to be what you see now."

Ramirez's 2008 record sort of follows that track. He opened the season with Class AA Chattanooga, going 2-3 with a 4.70 ERA in 11 appearances, including nine starts. He was promoted to Louisville on May 25 and put together a 4-5 record while improving his ERA by almost two runs to 3.08, including a 1.38 ERA over his last five starts.

The appearance will mark the major league debut for the Venezuelan, who broke into professional baseball in the San Diego system and was acquired by the Reds as a minor league free agent on May 12, 2003. He joins Cueto and Daryl Thompson as starting pitchers who made their major league debuts this season.

REDS 11, GIANTS 7: Rookie CF Chris Dickerson fell a triple short of the cycle while scoring three runs and driving in four as Cincinnati piled up more runs than in any game since scoring a season-high 12 in a win over the Cubs at Wrigley Field on July 10. The Reds scored more runs in both the third and fourth innings -- four each -- than they'd scored in their previous two games combined, the first four scoring on 3B Edwin Encarnacion's second career grand slam.