Kearns says he's not out to prove people wrong

[CincyRedsFan30]

Kearns back with a bang
Recalled Reds outfielder has game-winning hit in 9-6 victory over Cubs

By Hal McCoy

Dayton Daily News

CINCINNATI | The words said one thing, the politically correct thing, but the broad smile and the glint in his eyes spoke the truth.

Austin Kearns didn't say it, but what he did Thursday during an unfathomable 9-6 Cincinnati Reds victory over the Chicago Cubs said it: "Take that, I'm back. I should never have been forced to stay away so long. In fact, I never should have been made to go away in the first place."

Kearns spent a month-and-a-half at a Halfway House, Class AAA Louisville, a baseball eternity for a guy who knows the taste of big-league meals and big-league hotel beds and credentials that prove he is a major-leaguer.

Kearns returned with heavy emphasis. His contribution was three hits, including a bases-loaded single in the eighth inning that broke a 5-5 tie.

Kearns said in the past he carried his bat on one shoulder and a chip on the other, trying to show those who doubted his skills and abilities.

"I'm not out to prove personal issues or to prove people wrong," he said. "In the past I've tried to do that and it just makes it that much harder to do things. I know what I can do to help out and I'm just going to relax and hope good things will happen and try not to press."

On his first at-bat in the first inning against Greg Maddux, Kearns doubled.

On his second at-bat against Maddux he singled.

The Reds trailed, 5-4, in the seventh and filled the bases with nobody out, a place for Kearns to really drive home his point. Instead, his grounder forced a runner at home and the Reds didn't score.

"I was too anxious, shouldn't have swung at the pitch," said Kearns. "It was a sinker out of the zone and I should have let it go and I'd have been 2-and-0 instead of running down to first to beat out the double play.

"As soon as that happened I was kicking myself when I was on first base, hoping I'd get another chance to get it done," he said.

And there it was in the next inning. Bases loaded again in a tie game after the Cubs walked Ken Griffey Jr. intentionally. Kearns drove a two-run single up the middle and the Reds led, 7-5.

"It's nice to get off to a good start," he said. "If I come up and go 0-for-4 with three strikeouts people would say, 'He didn't learn anything,' " said Kearns.

While Kearns was the stage ham, the hogger of the klieg lights, it was a game in which contributions poured in from all venues like donations for Jerry's Kids ... in this instance, Jerry Narron's kids.

Starter Eric Milton gave up five runs, all in the fourth inning, and 11 hits over four innings, and the Reds trailed Maddux, 5-1.

Maddux needed six strikeouts to become the 13th pitcher with 3,000 career strikeouts and he started quickly by whiffing Ryan Freel on three pitches. The gagging heat and humidity did what the Reds couldn't do: knocked Maddux out of the game after only 71 pitches, leading 5-3 when he left.

Rich Aurilia homered in the second to give the Reds a 1-0 lead, then Javier Valentin hit a two-run homer in the fifth to cut it to 5-3. Valentine homered again in the sixth to make it 5-4.

The Reds tied it on a bases-loaded balk by Cubs pitcher Roberto Novoa with pinch-hitter Sean Casey batting in the eighth, setting the crowded stage for Kearns.

Aurilia, who was robbed on a two-run hit by center fielder Jerry Hairston when the Reds didn't score in the seventh with the bases loaded and no outs, added a two-run single in the eighth to his early-game homer.

After Milton, the Reds bullpen of Jason Standridge, Todd Coffey and Brian Shackelford held the Cubs to no runs and two hits from the fifth through the eighth.

Standridge came on for Milton in the fifth with runners on second and third with no outs and put a '0' on the board.

"I've been a starter my entire career, so that was a different atmosphere and a different rush," he said. "I've never come into a situation like that and it was fun."

Topping the day, Shackelford pitched a 1-2-3 eighth, and at 28 years old and in his first month of big-league pitching, annexed his first victory.

Shackelford signed as an outfielder, even though he was drafted twice as a pitcher, "And I stubbornly refused to put down the stick. I wanted to hit."

He was a designated hitter at Class AA Wichita in the Kansas City organization when the team ran out of pitchers and he was thrust into the ninth inning of a blowout game in 2001.

Four years later, he is 1-0 with a 1.00 earned run average in 10 major-league appearances.

[missionhockey21]

Shackleford is my starting 1B in a OOTP league I am in. Solid overall bat, great D and slow as molases. He still hit .307, 21 homers and 111 RBI's in his first sstarting stint last season. Oh if only OOTP could be like real life, or is it the other way around.

[CincyRedsFan30]

How about a mixture of OOTP(for some players) and real life for others?

[missionhockey21]

Would you take this from Milton?

Year	G	GS	W	L	SV	ERA	IP	HA	R	ER	HR	BB	K	CG	SHO	WHIP	Teams
2005	33	33	13	10	0	2.77	230.1	194	81	71	15	39	195	2	2	1.01	 CIN
2006	33	33	14	11	0	3.84	213.1	212	108	91	26	42	191	0	0	1.19	CIN
2007	9	9	4	2	0	3.47	59.2	65	23	23	5	7	61	0	0	1.21	CIN

[CincyRedsFan30]

Wow. If only...

We might be in the single digits when it comes to record below .500 right now, lol.

[Providence A's]

Kearns would be lying if he said he's not out to prove anyone wrong