SAN FRANCISCO -- This will not go into the books as a save for Mat Latos. But the Reds will tell you that it was one of their biggest saves of the year.

Not even two batters into the game, the Reds were facing imminent disaster. Their best pitcher, Cy Young candidate Johnny Cueto, was done after his eighth pitch. Back spasms.

Talk about throwing a wrench into both a back and a ballclub. Every carefully laid plan in Cincinnati was threatening to unravel practically before this Division Series had even started. And you thought things were bad in Game 1 two years ago when the Phillies' Roy Halladay no-hit 'em.

Well, whatever happens from here, we can guarantee you this: The Reds will not be swept the way they were in that 2010 series against Philadelphia. That's because, after Sam LeCure's 1 2/3 innings of quick relief, Mat Latos stepped in and threw four gutsy innings to position the Reds for a 5-2 over the Giants.

A succession of relievers from the game's best bullpen (major-league best 2.65 ERA and 56 saves) -- Sean Marshall, Jonathan Broxton and Aroldis Chapman -- finished it off from there.

So score it advantage, Reds, in a way nobody, starting with manager Dusty Baker, ever would have expected. All of Latos' previous 105 major-league appearances had come as a starter.

When the Reds ran through Cueto, Homer Bailey as a pinch-hitter and then Latos, they had chewed through three of their projected four-man rotation for this series in the first four innings. Only Bronson Arroyo was left sitting. Mike Leake is not on the Division Series roster.

Through four innings, Latos' only mistake was leaving an 87 m.p.h. slider up where Buster Posey could drill it into the left field seats. But Posey was leading off the sixth, and by that point the Reds already led 3-0 because Matt Cain left a change-up up in the third (boom, Brandon Phillips two-run homer) and threw another hanger in the fourth (which Jay Bruce deposited for a homer).

It was unusual, to say the least, watching Cain miss a couple of spots and depart after only five innings: These were the first postseason runs the big right-hander allowed in his career, having carried a 23 2/3-innings scoreless streak into Saturday night.

So now the Reds are back on track with Bronson Arroyo set for Game 2. The decision to use him Sunday and Latos in Game 3 back in Cincinnati? Arroyo gives up the Big Fly, and Cincinnati's ballpark is smaller. Less chance of him allowing homers here at AT&T Park.

But the Reds now must improvise for Game 3 on Tuesday, when Latos was going to go.

We'll see if Cueto's back spasms are calmed by then. Eight pitches Saturday, he wasn't exactly overworked.