Rookie Reynolds continues turnaround with go-ahead home run

Mark Reynolds is a playoff hero. He just prefers not to think of it like that. The mid-May call-up did what he's done all year, hitting a game-winning solo home run in the seventh inning in the Diamondbacks' 3-1 win over the Cubs in Game 1 of the National League division series on Wednesday night at Chase Field.

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"We just go out there and do what we know how to do, and that's play ball," Reynolds said of himself and the other youngsters. "I know, personally, I don't realize the magnitude of the situation we're in. I'm just going out there and having fun."

Reynolds was having plenty of fun after his promotion from Double-A Mobile on May 16, hitting .426 in that month with four home runs and 15 RBIs. But soon the book was out on him, and Reynolds' numbers dipped.

The fastball hitter was given a steady diet of breaking balls and he batted .162 in June and .194 in July. It culminated in a major-league record-tying nine straight strikeouts in the middle of August.

But Bob Melvin showed faith in his rookie third baseman, and it paid dividends.

Reynolds batted .342 in August and .300 in September and had nine homers combined in those two months.

Home runs in back-to-back contests against the Dodgers on Sept. 21 and 22 really indicated his progress.

"Definitely I went on a little roller coaster ride there for a while," Reynolds said. "In August and September I was able to make some adjustments and turn it around a little bit, and I'm just glad I made it at the right time going into the postseason."

Reliever Brandon Lyon said he started noticing the change over the last month.

"He was a little overaggressive for a little while there, swinging at a lot of pitches he couldn't really handle," Lyon said. "But those last few weeks, he did start hitting those pitches, and hitting them out of the ballpark."

On Wednesday, Reynolds looked lost in his two at-bats against Cubs starter Carlos Zambrano. He grounded feebly to second base to lead off the second inning and struck out swinging in the fourth.

After overthrowing a grounder in the fifth, it began to look like a forgettable first postseason experience for Reynolds.

Then, after laying off two sliders from Chicago reliever Carlos Marmol, he hit a towering blast over the left field wall off a fastball, more than making up for the slow start.

"That's Mark," manager Bob Melvin said. "Mark will punch out a couple times, and then you make one mistake and it ends up in the seats. We've seen that all year."