AP photo by Tom Uhlman

As TV cameras and reporters surrounded him following Saturday's 4-2 victory over the Indians, Adam Dunn sat in his chair, still miffed about not getting down a bunt.

In the seventh inning, Reds manager Dusty Baker noticed him upset after striking out with Edwin Encarnacion on second and no outs when the Reds and Indians were tied at 1. Dunn didn't want that feeling again when he came up in the bottom of the ninth inning on Saturday.

"I've had it both ways -- hitting the home run and then all the crowd standing up and saying you suck and you strike out," Dunn said after the game. "It's like I want to do good so I don’t have that feeling. I hate losing more than I like winning. Does that make sense?"

It does to many -- Baker's said the same thing many times.

Dunn, Baker noted, sat at the end of the bench by himself stewing over the missed opportunity in the seventh. Not only did he fail to get the runner over, Paul Bako then struck out and Baker pulled starter Aaron Harang for pinch hitter Scott Hatteberg, who grounded out to end the inning. So not only had Dunn not advanced or scored the runner, he also indirectly ended the day of the Reds' ace. It didn't help that Cleveland’s Ben Francisco homered in the next inning to put the Reds' winning streak in jeopardy.

That, Dunn said, bothered him, but he made sure it was firmly out of his mind as he stood on deck in the bottom of the ninth and the Reds trailing 2-1.  He made sure it wasn’t there because his full attention had to be on the task at hand and Cleveland reliever Masa Kobayashi on the mound.

After Joey Votto singled to lead off the inning and Encarnacion was hit by a pitch, Dunn was singularly focused on the task at hand -- getting the runners over with a bunt.

"That's baseball. In that situation, you can't afford a double play and you don't want a strikeout and not advancing the runners. That's how I was taught to play," Baker said. "I know he's a big power guy, but he's told me he's a good bunter, too.  He's been bragging to me since spring training about how he can bunt. He's dying to squeeze one. Maybe one day he might."
Dunn squared on Kobayashi’s first pitch, but pulled back for ball one. On the second, he got the perfect pitch to bunt and missed it.

"That's what's frustrating. I work on it every single day, bunting. It was right down the middle. It's frustrating, it really is," Dunn said. "I was told to get a bunt down and I didn't. But I'll take it."

He’ll take it, because after another ball, Dunn hit the next pitch he saw 449 feet to the top row of the right field stands for his seventh walk-off homer of his career, and his second game-winning at-bat in as many days. Friday, Dunn walked with the bases loaded in the eighth inning of a tie game to give the Reds a 4-3 lead and ultimately the victory.

After Friday night's win, Dunn said he wished he could be in that situation every night. It wasn't 20 hours later that he was, and he came through once again. For a guy stuck with the label of not being clutch, he's been clutch the last couple of days. It was also his second career walk-off against the Indians at Great American Ball Park, hitting a walk-off grand slam off Bob Wickman in 2006.

"I love it. Especially with a packed house. I don't know. It's awesome. … It's awesome," Dunn said. "I think that’s definitely coincidental (hitting walk-offs against the Indians). None of that happens if Joey doesn't get that hit on a ball that he just battled. It happens. It's definitely a team deal. I know you think it's a cliché, but it's true. If there's two outs and it's a solo deal, we're still playing."

Video replays showed Votto take an initial step back toward second base when he saw the ball hit in the air, but immediately raising his arms in celebration, knowing his team had won.

In addition to his second game-winner in as many days, Dunn has now homered in three straight games and had an RBI in each of the last six games, while the Reds have now won five games in a row -- all against first-place teams.

"Adam's been swinging better, and hopefully he gets hot," Baker said. "He's one of the most popular teammates in here and the guys respond around him. Once you start coming through, you start believing you can come through. I know he felt good about it."

The Reds failed to get the win for Harang, whose ERA dropped to 3.12 after allowing an earned run and eight hits in seven innings and is still 2-5 on the season.

"I'm not worried about it. I'm just trying to keep us in the game and put us into a position to win the game," Harang said. "That's what I did today. There's a couple of situations I got into and was able to buckle down and get out of it. I just kept plugging along. It seems like the last week, it's been a different guy every night. Everyone's been getting a chip in and getting it done, that's what it's all about."

Indians starter Fausto Carmona was even better, giving up a run on four hits in 7 1/3 innings.
But the Reds were able to get to Kobayashi, who entered the game with a 1.86 ERA, first with Votto's single and Dunn's blast.

"That's how we've always been," Harang said. "We scrap it out until the game's over. Early on we weren't doing that, but now we are putting runs on the board. These guys have been frustrated, even for the pitchers because they weren't helping us out. Now that's changed and we've got to keep going with it."