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CIN@MIL: Reds score five runs in the 10th

MILWAUKEE -- Jay Bruce doesn't know why he's had so much success against the Brewers, but it continued Saturday night.

In typical Brewers vs. Reds fashion, the game went back and forth, and this time it was Cincinnati that used a 10th-inning leadoff home run from Bruce to pull out an 8-4 victory at Miller Park. Bruce's homer off Marco Estrada was part of a five-run 10th that propelled the Reds to their first victory of the series and just their third win in nine games. Bruce went 3-for-4 with an RBI, two runs scored and two walks.

"He's coming up big for us. He's had some big hits, some big home runs, and boy, that was a big night for us," said manager Dusty Baker, who called a pregame meeting to reiterate the importance of the final two games before the All-Star break.

Baker was the only one who spoke in the meeting and said it wasn't the right time to "let go pretty good," or go off on his team. He reminded his club that he believes they have the talent to be competitive the rest of the way and wanted to send forth a positive message so his team wouldn't slide into the break.

The message seemed to be well received as the Reds prevailed after the Brewers let a key opportunity slip away in the bottom of the ninth. Rickie Weeks led off with a single to center field and advanced to second when Bill Bray's pickoff attempt was off line. Nyjer Morgan, who laced a ninth-inning triple during Friday night's win, pulled back twice on bunt attempts for called strikes and then couldn't get the ball in fair territory. Morgan's bunt rolled foul along the first-base line for the first out of the inning.

"I thought it was going to hang on," Morgan said. "It's one of those parts of the game. I was a little frustrated there that I didn't do the job. I was hoping my boy behind me was going to pick me up and do the job, and we were going to win it right there."

Corey Hart flied out, which advanced Weeks to third before Mark Kotsay lined out to end the inning. The Brewers had won three in a row since manager Ron Roenicke called a meeting on Tuesday following his club's loss to the D-backs.

Both teams left more than their fair share of runners on base as newly elected All-Star Scott Rolen, who replaced Chipper Jones on the National League roster, left nine men on base. Rolen and left fielder Fred Lewis both batted with the bases loaded in the third and fifth innings and combined to go 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.

"It's better than a loss, that's for sure. This is a nice win. Obviously I did my part to try and lose tonight, and we just wouldn't have it," Rolen said. "I left a small village on base, but yeah, things weren't going my way early there, but Jay got a big hit and we got some good pitching down the stretch."

Rolen added a double in the 10th, which brought his career total to 499. The third baseman is now just one double shy of joining Jones and Hall of Famer George Brett as the only third basemen in Major League history to record at least 2,000 career hits, 500 doubles, 300 home runs and 1,200 RBIs.

The Brewers jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first inning when Weeks scored on Hart's single to right field. Kotsay followed with a two-out RBI single to center field off Reds starter Johnny Cueto, who struggled to settle into a rhythm early in the game.

The right-handed Cueto rebounded after recording two errors during his outing and worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the third. He pitched 6 1/3 innings, walked four batters, struck out two and was charged with three runs on six hits.

It wasn't Cueto's sharpest outing of the year, but Bruce continued to be a thorn in the Brewers' side. This season the All-Star right fielder has five home runs and 12 RBIs when playing against Milwaukee, the most in both categories against any team. He's homered in each of the last two games.

"Some stuff hasn't gone our way lately and that's OK, that's baseball," Bruce said. "We're trying to minimize the downs and ride the ups as long as we can."

Ramon Hernandez also homered in the game, something Baker said he's come to expect from his clutch catcher. Hernandez' two-run home run in the second was his 10th long ball of the season.

Milwaukee starter Shaun Marcum worked out of two bases-loaded jams and laid down a suicide squeeze in the second inning that scored Yunieksy Betancourt. The game was tied at 3 after the second frame and remained that way until Bruce opened the floodgates in extras. Marcum pitched six innings and surrendered three earned runs on six hits. The right hander is now 0-1 with a 6.43 ERA in his last five starts.

Bruce and All-Star Joey Votto, who has 48 RBIs all-time against the Brewers, have one more game before the break, and in Bruce's opinion, there's still plenty of time for the Reds to make a run at the NL Central. The message that his skipper sent pregame echoed in Bruce's postgame comments.

"Today's meeting was kind of a meeting of reinforcement, reiteration that we do have the talent to win here," Bruce said. "We still got this thing, and it's a long season."

Audrey Snyder is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.