St. Louis pounded the Reds in a game the Reds had to have. By the eighth inning of the 12-3 drubbing, most of the 45,771 customers were out fighting the traffic and the Reds were playing like condemned men.

Eric Davis slides home under Eddie Taubensee. (Michael E. Keating photo) | ZOOM |

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What a mess.

On the field and off, the 2000 Reds have managed to take a delightfully expectant offseason and throw it in the trash. All in three months. All in the last few weeks, really.

Where do we begin? With players privately lobbying for Jack McKeon's firing? With coach Ron Oester ripping the players' effort? With team captain Barry Larkin cryptically suggesting things were terribly amiss but offering no solutions?

With ""special assistant'' Bob Boone circling Cinergy Field all weekend, after saying in Baseball Weekly he wants to manage again? What a mess. You'd like to think all of the above are the reasons for the Reds' current state. You can fix friction.

But they're all symptoms of the greater illness, which is lousy pitching. The Reds can't fix that, not even with Pete Harnisch's return tonight. Harnisch could be brilliant the rest of the year, and the Reds still would need three of him to make a run.

It's not that the four-game split with the Cards knocked the Reds from the pennant race. They play their next four in Arizona, where they've won six in a row and won't have to hit against Randy Johnson or Todd Stottlemyre. If St. Louis stumbles, the Reds could go to Busch Stadium next week behind by fewer than the current 8 games.

But nothing has changed. Nothing suggests anything will. The Reds can't sustain anything. Their starting pitching won't allow it. They haven't won two in a row in nearly a month.

There is no pitching genie to pop from a bottle and give them six decent innings every day. Ron Villone gives them all he has. But at the end of the day, he is still Ron Villone. He put the Reds down a touchdown after three innings Thursday. They didn't recover.

""When you talk about playing well over an extended period of time, starting pitching is the key,'' Aaron Boone said.

This team doesn't have it. Pitching, hitting, karma, you name it. It is 1999 in reverse. It's time to retool, rearrange, rethink.

Sit Sean Casey. He is a prince. He also has driven in 20 runs in 211 at-bats. Ship Eddie Taubensee. He's also a prince. If Taubensee got paid by the autograph, he'd be Bill Gates. But he has 17 RBI in 192 at-bats, and if Taubensee isn't hitting, he isn't helping.

The pitching can't be fixed. That should have been done in January. What's left is McKeon. Permit him his dignity. He has earned that. If you want to fire him, do it. Though I'd bet he's close to resigning, anyway.

If he's staying, muzzle the back-biting players and keep Bob Boone out of the clubhouse. Nothing against Boone, but a man with his ambitions doesn't belong in there right about now.

Get on with the season with a little class. At the moment, that's about all that's left to salvage.

Paul Daugherty welcomes your comments at (513) 768-8454.

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