Reds Keeping Pace In Ohio Race Cincinnati Moves A Step Closer To Possible Meeting With Cleveland

That I-71 World Series is one step closer and looking more like a distinct possibility.

While Cleveland tore through its first-round A.L. playoff series, an Indians castoff helped the Cincinnati Reds keep up its end of the Buckeye State bargain.

Mark Lewis hit the first pinch grand slam in playoff history Friday night, clinching a 10-1 victory and a series sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers. The last out in that game came shortly after the Indians beat the Boston Red Sox 8-2 to complete the only other first-round sweep.

Heading into the playoffs, the Reds were the bigger concern of the two Ohio teams. They struggled through a 12-15 September and seemed to be coming apart instead of coming together.

Three games against Los Angeles changed everything. Suddenly, they’re doing everything right.

“We played almost a perfect game,” manager Davey Johnson said of the clincher.

Their timing was perfect, and eerily reminiscent of 1990. That year, the Reds also stumbled into the playoffs and got on a roll that carried them through a sweep of Oakland in the World Series.

In 1990, Eric Davis emerged from a deep slump just in time to stun Oakland, and backups had some of the best games of their careers during the playoffs. This time, Ron Gant and Bret Boone pulled out of slumps, and backups like Lewis did the unexpected.

Lewis, a native of nearby Hamilton who was Cleveland’s top draft pick in 1988, was known mainly for failure with his first team. He made the last out at Cleveland Stadium in 1993 - appropriately, a strike-out - and was traded to the Reds last year, just when things were looking up for the Indians.

He came to bat in the sixth inning Friday night with the bases loaded and Mark Guthrie on the mound, and hit a high fly that went for his first career grand slam.

“I was just trying to hit a fly ball to try to get the run in, and it just happened to carry out,” Lewis said. “That’s the best feeling of my life.”

He wasn’t the only one coming up with his best at an unexpected moment. Gant hit his first homer since Sept. 4 and Boone hit only his second since July 29. Both came off Dodgers rookie ace Hideo Nomo.

The explanation? Good timing.

“I felt like things were starting to come together during the last (regular-season) series in Montreal,” Gant said. “I got some pitches to hit in Los Angeles, but I was just missing them, so I felt it was only a matter of time.”

Same thing for Boone, who went 193 at-bats before hitting a homer in the final regular-season game at Montreal.

“Sometimes I hit a lot of home runs in a short period of time. Sometimes, I don’t hit many for a long time,” Boone said.

The Reds had a lot to feel good about as they took a day off Saturday and waited to see who they will play in the N.L. championship series, Atlanta or Colorado.

Johnson was configuring his starting rotation to face the Braves.

“I’m assuming Atlanta is going to win one of their next two, so I’ll set up my left-handers against Atlanta,” he said. “There’s no secret about that. Don’t ask me what we’ll do if it’s Colorado.”

Gant would love the chance to play the Braves, the team that let him go after he broke a leg before the 1994 season.

“The way I feel right now, it would be almost like a dream for me to face the Atlanta Braves since they did release me,” Gant said. “But the situation right now is, I don’t care who we face.”