Pokey Reese stepped out of the batter's box to swat at a bug before leading off Tuesday night's fourth inning. The Reds experienced a similar feeling as they groped for Kerry Wood's pitches.

        Just two outs separated the Reds from their first shutout defeat of the season, as they fell to the magnificent Wood and the Chicago Cubs, 2-1.

Kerry Wood held the Reds to four hits Tuesday night. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        Wood (7-7), the 1998 National League Rookie of the Year who missed all of last season after undergoing elbow surgery, looked healthy before a paid crowd of 25,744 at Cinergy Field. The right-hander allowed four hits in his second professional complete game, walking two and striking out eight. Wood's only other nine-inning effort was his auspicious 20-strikeout performance against Houston in his May 6, 1998 coming-out party.

        “The year and a half he missed physically, he must have been in there mentally,” said Reds left fielder Dmitri Young, who struck out three times. “Because he threw the heck out of the ball and kept us off-balance the whole game.”

        Wood faltered with one out in the ninth inning as he fired his 103rd pitch of the evening. Alex Ochoa lined it over the left-field wall for his ninth home run of the season and third in three days.

        Sean Casey drew a walk, but Wood recovered by striking out Young and pinch hitter D.T. Cromer.

        “I had gone that far; I wasn't going to let it slip away,” said Wood, who overcame a case of bronchitis that left him feeling weak before the game.

        The end of the Reds' three-game winning streak shrank their magic number for elimination in the NL Central shrank to nine, pending the St. Louis-Pittsburgh outcome late Tuesday night.

Gary Matthews Jr. of the Cubs is safe at first as the ball gets away from the Reds' Sean Casey in the first inning. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        But the Reds could take solace in avoiding a shutout. The only other team to go the season without being shut out was the 1932 World Champion New York Yankees.

        “It shows this club is resilient,” Reds manager Jack McKeon said.

        “We're aware of it, but we really don't think about it,” Ochoa said. “We just think about winning and trying to score. It's a good streak, but the important thing is to win and we didn't get it done tonight.”

        Wood did, complementing breaking pitches with fastballs. The Reds clocked the latter at 91-94 mph, with a couple reaching 95 mph. Others throw this hard, but Wood tantalized hitters with high deliveries that produced 14 fly-ball or pop-up outs.

        “Nice, easy movement. A sneaky fastball,” Reds shortstop Juan Castro said. “I don't know how hard he was throwing, but it seemed like 100 to me.”

        Said Ochoa: “It's hard to lay off that pitch right at the letters. It looks good to you, but it isn't really.”

        Wood's 5.43 ERA entering the game reflected his inconsistency. He had yielded three runs or less in back-to-back outings only twice this year. But throttling the Reds was a habit for Wood in his wondrous '98 season, when he went 3-0 against them while striking out 34 in 20 innings.

        That dominance returned. Wood retired the first 11 Reds batters before Casey doubled. Quickly righting himself, Wood struck out Young to finish the fourth inning.

        This pattern continued. Chris Stynes singled with one out in the fifth but was erased on Benito Santiago's double-play grounder. Reese walked with two outs in the sixth before Ochoa flied out to left field. Brady Clark fanned after Castro dropped a two-out, eighth-inning single into right.

        Cincinnati's few breakthroughs came grudgingly. Castro explained he switched from a 32-ounce bat to a 31-ounce model to muster his hit. Ochoa had to accelerate his swing to turn his sixth-inning fly ball into a ninth-inning homer.

        “I got my bat-head out just in time,” he said.

        Though Reds starter Osvaldo Fernandez (2-3) took the loss, his first start since July 6 after enduring elbow and shoulder woes could be considered a success.

        Fernandez yielded just five hits in six innings and threw 41 of his 66 pitches for strikes. The two runs he allowed were abetted not by poor pitches but by other miscues: His first-inning throwing error and his fifth-inning balk.

        If anything, this game's ultimate victor was hope. Four of its pitchers — Wood, Fernandez and Reds relievers Hector Mercado and Mark Wohlers — were veterans of “Tommy John” elbow surgery.

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