a need for speed

In the biggest game on the MLB schedule Monday night, Cincinnati at St. Louis, Zack Cozart came up big for the Reds. The former Ole Miss standout tripled and doubled, drove in three runs and scored another. He also made some good plays at shortstop. Unfortunately for Cincy, that wasn’t enough. With big home runs from Matt Holliday and Allen Craig (a game-changing grand slam off Mississippi Braves alum J.J. Hoover), St. Louis won 8-6, moved into first place alone in the National League Central and dropped the third-place Reds 3½ games back. Cozart’s recent exploits notwithstanding — he entered Monday having batted .281, up 40 points from his season average, over his previous 10 games — the Reds continue to have offensive issues. Among those is speed on the bases. The cure for that, of course, could be Billy Hamilton, the base-stealing demon from Taylorsville. Hamilton likely will be promoted when rosters expand on Sunday. He is batting .257 (.310 on-base percentage) with 73 steals, 73 runs, six homers and 41 RBIs in 119 games at Triple-A Louisville. P.S. Meridian Community College product Cliff Lee stifled the New York Mets for eight innings on Monday to notch his 11th win for Philadelphia; it was his first W since July 5. Jonathan Papelbon, the ex-Missisippi State star, worked the ninth for his 22nd save, just his second since July 11.