Barry Larkin and Ken Griffey Jr. celebrate the victory. (AP photos) | ZOOM |

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        HOUSTON — Though the Reds will spend a brief three days at home beginning tonight, they have every right to feel settled.

        They've won five of their last six series, completing another triumph Monday night with a 4-3 victory over the Houston Astros. Cincinnati thrived in its initial visit to Enron Field, capturing three of four games.

        The Reds came up with a well-rounded effort. Aaron Boone and Ken Griffey Jr. slugged two-run homers to support Ron Villone's suffocating pitching.

        “I don't think we're completely clicking yet. But you have to win the close games and we've been able to,” said Boone, referring to Cincinnati's 4-0 record in extra innings and 9-2 mark in one-run games. “The bullpen has been really good, we've managed to come up with some big hits when we've needed them and we're catching the ball well. That's what (distinguishes) the good teams.”

        The Reds (21-16) have won seven of their last eight games, surging back into a first-place tie with St. Louis in the National League Central.

Ron Villone gave up two hits in seven innings. | ZOOM |

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        Only a determined effort would suffice against the Astros, winners of the last three Central titles. The Reds received that kind of performance from Villone (5-1), who nearly matched the three near-complete one-hitters he threw last year.

        Villone surrendered two hits in seven innings while winning his third consecutive start and improving to 4-1 with a 1.71 ERA lifetime against Houston. The left-hander yielded Ken Caminiti's two-out single in the first inning and no other hits until Eusebio's one-out homer.

        “I was really into the game. I was focused,” Villone said. “I don't know if I was jacked up more or what it was, but I went after everybody. I was really aggressive tonight mentally, which I need to be.”

        Villone's intensity rose a notch when Jeff Bagwell's sharp third-inning comebacker grazed him on his right arm and caromed to second baseman Pokey Reese, who was shifted toward shortstop.

Griffey reacts after taking a strike. | ZOOM |

        “That's probably the worst nightmare for a pitcher, for a ball to come back at you a lot harder than you're throwing it,” Villone said. “That's no fun. That kind of (tees) me off sometimes. I take it personally.”

        It's nothing personal when pitchers fail at Enron Field, since most of them do. A record 65 homers had been hit in the first 18 games here. That, along with the per-game average of 12.4 runs, made the six-inning double shutout maintained by Villone and Houston's Jose Lima (1-6) a veritable oasis in this year's wasteland of excessive power hitting.

        Said Villone, “I think if you concentrate on how far the ball's traveling in batting practice, you're going to have it in the back of your mind. When you go out there, you don't look at what's behind you. That might be a left-field porch, but sometimes you have to keep the ball from them so they hit it the other way.”

        In fact, Villone recorded five opposite-field outs in the first four innings.

Villone reacts after giving up a walk. | ZOOM |

        “The big thing about him is he's effectively wild,” Bagwell told the Associated Press. “He'll throw some pitches all over the place and then he'll make a great pitch in the paint.

        “It's hard to get comfortable against him. You don't know what he's trying to do so you don't know what to look for.”

        With two outs in the seventh, Eddie Taubensee singled before Boone slapped a 2-2 pitch for his sixth homer of the season, a slicing drive to right field.

        After Houston's Tony Eusebio homered in the bottom of the inning, Griffey widened the Reds' edge to 4-1 with two outs in the eighth by launching his 13th homer of the season. Dmitri Young singled before Griffey victimized Astros reliever Jose Cabrera for his 411th career round-tripper. It's probably no coincidence that the Reds are 10-1 when Griffey homers.

        “He has been our biggest clutch performer, no doubt about that,” Reds manager Jack McKeon said.

        Griffey's homer proved crucial as Reds reliever Danny Graves allowed a run in each of his two innings, ending his streak of 14 consecutive scoreless innings, but still earned his sixth save.

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