New Delhi, June 14 -- CINCINNATI - Chase Petty was not built for the seventh inning of a tie game. The Reds drafted and developed him to start them, to set a tone across six innings rather than to walk into the middle of someone else's trouble with the score level and the heart of the Arizona order waiting. On Saturday night they handed him that trouble anyway. He walked back out of it with the first win of his major league life.

two rookies, one unfamiliar role, one losing streak finally interrupted. Cincinnati had been sliding. The win, narrow and a little improbable, snapped it.

The game turned in the seventh. With the score tied and two runners aboard, manager Terry Francona went to Petty, a starting prospect making the kind of high...