PulseJournal.com

ATLANTA — Mario Soto's first words to Edinson Volquez Friday after Volquez gave up a home run to Atlanta's Brian McCann on a high changeup: "I know that pitch. I remember that pitch, that high changeup."

The home run to McCann cost Volquez a 2-0 loss. Soto's high pitch cost him a no-hitter, "A high change-up to George Hendricks (St. Louis Cardinals) on a 3-and-2 pitch with two outs in the ninth. Cost me a no-hitter."

Said Soto, "This is the big leagues. One mistake and they'll make you pay. I'll never forget that."

Soto is in Atlanta at the behest of manger Dusty Baker to tutor Johnny Cueto.

"I watched him on TV when I was in the Dominican Republic," said Soto. "His mechanics are not the same. He is falling away toward the first base side too much, sometimes before he even releases the ball. He'll pick it up. Right now is a good time to learn."

After holding the Arizona Diamondbacks to one hit and striking out 10 in his major-league debut, Cueto has since has gone 0-3 with a 6.94 ERA and his mentor, Soto, was given a 911 call.

Volquez impresses Cox

Speaking of Volquez, Atlanta manager Bobby Cox is mightily impressed. And Cox has managed one or five notable pitchers (Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, Tom Glavine, Steve Avery).

"I like him a lot," said Cox. "He is really good and his stuff is so good that he makes guys swing at bad pitches, and that's the sign of a good pitcher. He has great poise."

And Cox was bubbly about the entire Reds starting staff, calling it, "Probably the best they've had in 10 years. That Cueto kid is good. Volquez is a keeper. Put them in there with Aaron Harang and Bronson Arroyo and that makes them pretty damn formidable."

Shuffling the order

Manager Dusty Baker didn't draw names out of a hat, it just looked that way when he wrote his lineup for Saturday's game. It looked as if it had been run through a card shuffler.

The order: Ryan Freel, CF; Ken Griffey Jr., RF; Brandon Phillips, 2B; Joey Votto, 1B; Edwin Encarnacion, 3B; Adam Dunn, LF; Jeff Keppinger, SS; David Ross, C; Matt Belisle, P.

The highlights were moving Griffey from third to second, moving Votto from seventh to fourth and dropping Dunn from fifth to sixth.

"Hey, man, ya gotta try something," said Baker. "All I do is think. I had this lineup in mind from the off day (Thursday)."

About Griffey batting second, Baker said, "I had talked to Junior in spring training and he had offered to bat second, but I didn't know if he was serious. He offered it. We have so many lefthanded hitters that keeping them apart is not easy to do."

Griffey had batted second 62 times in his career, mostly with Seattle, and was smiling broadly when approached about it.

"I'm movin' on up," he said. "Pretty soon I'll be batting leadoff — table-setter and contact hitter? and chasing Rickey Henderson (for leadoff home runs). I just want to lead off a game with a home run like Rickey used to do (39 times in his career)."

Quote(s) of the day

Jeff Keppinger asked Kent Mercker about the rules of the Kentucky Derby and Mercker said, "Quickest horse wins."

Manager Dusty Baker, told that Atlanta coach Terry Pendleton was carrying some kind of virus since spring training: "Glad I was wearing batting gloves when I shook hands with him."

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