Thursday, May 13, 1999

BREWERS 8, REDS 7

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Harnisch labors, home runs fly

BY CHRIS HAFT
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Pokey Reese is out trying to stretch a double into a triple. (AP photos) | ZOOM |

        Though the Reds seemed to have inched forward with some modest successes recently, they resumed running in place Wednesday night.

        Their 8-7 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers maintained a dreary pattern that will keep them wallowing in mediocrity.

        Four times this season, the Reds have won two games in a row. On each occasion, they've appeared on the brink of extending that little winning streak.

        And then ... “Back to reality,” second baseman Pokey Reese said.

        Reality showed that the Reds (14-17), who had won four of their last five series, split this series and returned to last place in the National League Central Division, a half-game behind the Brewers (15-17).

Pete Harnisch has allowed nine homers in his last 36 1/3 innings. (AP photos) | ZOOM |

        Milwaukee leapfrogged Cincinnati with unusually potent offense. After hitting .216 (54-for-250) on the first seven games of their road trip, the Brewers headed home after belting a season-high four homers and 15 hits, including Dave Nilsson's two home runs. Milwaukee's hit total equaled the highest by a Reds opponent this year.

        Trailing 8-2, the Reds rebounded with three runs in the seventh inning and two more in the ninth on pinch hitter Michael Tucker's two-run homer. It was another fruitless rally by the Reds, who fell to 4-7 in one-run games despite collecting a season-high six doubles.

        Reds starter Pete Harnisch offered an explanation, not an excuse, for another developing pattern: Cinergy Field's tendency to serve as a breeding ground for home runs.

        Hitters have blasted 49 homers in 21 games at Cincinnati, which translates to a 189-homer pace for the entire season. The Reds have hit 24, opponents 25.

        Only three parks generated more than 189 homers last year: Denver's Coors Field (212), Chicago's Wrigley Field (199) and St.Louis' Busch Stadium (196). Coors sits in mile-high altitude, Wrigley features cozy dimensions and frequently outbound breezes, and Busch is home to Mark McGwire.

        Harnisch (2-4), who yielded five runs and 10 hits while lasting one batter into the fifth inning, again was plagued by the long ball, allowing Nilsson's first homer and Geoff Jenkins' round-tripper consecutively in the second inning. Since shutting out St.Louis in his first start of the season, Harnisch has allowed nine homers in 36 1/3 innings.

        “I'm a flyball pitcher, and it has become more and more apparent to me that (Cinergy) is like a launching pad,” he said. “Balls fly out of here, like, unbelievable.”

        Harnisch admitted that Nilsson's ball was crushed. But Jenkins' homer was a line drive that simply kept carrying.

        “I was thinking it was a double down the line,” Harnisch said. “It just never came down. It's heating up a little bit, and more and more balls are just flying. And I'm going to Colorado next. I don't know what to tell you.”

        Harnisch wasn't griping, because home runs didn't doom him against the Brewers. His own sluggish deliveries did.

        Said Harnisch: “I didn't think I had a very good fastball. I didn't have a very good breaking ball. My changeup was OK. What are you going to do, throw all changeups?”

        Had another pattern remained constant, the Reds might have fared better. Their relievers, who entered the game with a league-low 3.09 ERA, were charged with three runs in five innings. That included Nilsson's two-run homer off Gabe White in the fifth inning and Jeromy Burnitz's 446-foot shot into the right-field yellow seats in the seventh off Dennys Reyes, who had retired 17 of the previous 18 hitters he faced.

        “That's one of the few times our bullpen didn't hold them,” Reds manager Jack McKeon said. “That's to be expected once in a while.”

       

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