Bob Boone criticized his hitters after another loss. (Ernest Coleman photos) | ZOOM |

        Everything about the Reds' offense dwindled as May progressed. Except Bob Boone's frustration.

        Cincinnati's final, record-setting May defeat, a 3-1 loss to the surging Chicago Cubs, left Boone criticizing his hitters' approach against Jon Lieber, who yielded five hits in 7 1/3 innings after shutting out the Reds on one hit last Thursday.

        “We ran a team out there that couldn't hit Lieber. Bottom line,” Boone said. “We were just chasing balls, reaching for every ball.”

        Lieber (5-3) helped the Cubs win their 10th consecutive game by allowing just two runners into scoring position. This gave the Reds few chances to execute situational hitting techniques. Yet Boone found room to harp on this, lamenting Jason LaRue's fourth-inning strikeout with one out and Dmitri Young on third base. Boone considered it a prime sacrifice-fly situation.

Ruben Rivera makes a diving catch. | ZOOM |

        Boone said LaRue “chased a ball” but didn't mean to single out his catcher.

        “We're seeing that steadily,” Boone said. “The tighter it gets, the worse our at-bats get. It has to be the opposite. We had (Lieber) on the ropes; he didn't have us on the ropes. That's what you have to learn here, or you go away. What we saw tonight, swinging, was unacceptable at the major-league level.”

        Forgive the Reds if they felt tempted to sign Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew, the No.5 all-time home run hitter with 573, who tossed Wednesday night's ceremonial first pitch as part of a health-care promotion. And forgive them for envying Sammy Sosa, whose two-run, first-inning homer off luckless Chris Reitsma (2-5) gave the Cubs enough offense.

Michael Tucker makes a running catch. | ZOOM |

        “You look around this clubhouse and you say, "Man, these guys have some talent. How can we keep losing?'” left fielder Deion Sanders said after the fifth-place Reds slipped 11 1/2 games behind Chicago in the NL Central. “All it takes is for a couple of guys to really get on fire.”

        Then again, maybe those guys are on the disabled list. Cubs manager Don Baylor considered this after his team concluded its second three-game sweep of the Reds in as many weeks and its first in Cincinnati since Aug.15-17, 1989.

Chris Reitsma gets a new ball after giving up a Sammy Sosa HR. | ZOOM |

        “I've seen (Barry) Larkin, (Ken Griffey) Junior and Aaron Boone enough,” said a gracious Baylor, who at the conclusion of last week's sweep dismissed the Reds, saying, “It seems like they had a plane to catch.”

        Continued Baylor: “You take out those three guys and not having to face (Pete) Harnisch, too. It's tough when you're running young kids in there and expect them to take up the slack.”

        Sanders, who faced Lieber in both games and went 0-for-6, explained why the Reds might have looked a trifle overeager.

        “He throws a lot of strikes. You can't go up there saying, OK, I'm going to take (pitches) and make this guy work a little bit,” Sanders said of the right-hander. “If you go up there with that philosophy, you're down on the count 0-1. And he works fast. He did an incredible job. It's not like he was fooling us or anything. He just hit his spots.”

Reds end month in dis-May Cubs 3, Reds 1 Kremchek says he underestimated Griffey's injury Griffey, Harnisch improved Elder grad fills in for Reyes Update on other injured Reds Sosa's homer keeps Cubs rolling Reds box, runs

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