MIAMI - On a hot, muggy night in Florida, the Cincinnati Reds displayed what manager Dusty Baker and General Manager Walt Jocketty talked about all winter as the team's driving mechanism.
It has nothing to do with a Big Red Machine and everything to do with a Little Red Wagon. And here is where it came from during a 7-0 victory over the Florida Marlins.
* Pitching: Edinson Volquez.
* Manufactured runs: Two stolen bases set up the first two runs.
* Defense: Chris Dickerson, Jerry Hairston Jr. and Ramon Hernandez made textbook plays.
After all these components constructed a 4-0 lead, Brandon Phillips applied the exclamation point in the seventh with a three-run home run, giving him six RBIs.
"That's the way you win," said Baker. "Then throw in a long ball to break the game open."
Joey Votto was on base five times, and Phillips drove him home twice, plus they walked Votto intentionally in front of Phillips before his home run.
"It makes you think when they walk a guy in front of you," said Phillips. "I would have done that same thing, but I wanted to show them, 'Don't do that again, please.' It opened up my eyes and I said, 'Wow.' "
Phillips knows how they won is the way the Reds are supposed to win and said, "There is a reason this team is put together the way it is. We have speed, defense and guys who can put the ball in play."
Volquez did his part with quickness and dominating force - eight innings, no runs, three hits, four walks, seven strikeouts, victory No. 4. He is working on a string of 16 1 / 3 straight scoreless innings and has given up five hits.
Reds pitchers have four shutouts in the last six games and Phillips said, "I believe in our rotation and our pitchers. We have future All-Stars."
Offensively, it began in the first inning when Hairston walked, stole second and scored on a single by Votto.
It surfaced again in the third with another walk, this one to Votto, who also stole second and continued to third on a throwing error, from where he scored on a Phillips single.
Defensively, left fielder Dickerson made a diving catch of a line drive in the second. And with John Baker on first in the fourth, Hanley Ramirez doubled to deep left center. Baker tried to score, but was out when Hairston took center fielder Willy Taveras' relay and fired home, where Hernandez made a diving tag.
More small-ball surfaced for the Reds in the fifth - single by Taveras, infield hit by Hairston, walk to Votto and a two-run single by Phillips.
