Cincinnati pitcher Jimmy Haynes wipes the sweat from his lip after giving up back to back home runs to Pittsburgh during the 4th inning. (Steven M. Herppich photo) | ZOOM |

        Here come the Seattle Mariners. Sweet Lou, Ichiro, Bret Boone, Mike Cameron. And the rest of the cast that won 116 regular-season games last year.

        The Mariners are already in town today, having arrived here late Sunday after their game in San Diego.

        The Reds' three-game series with them begins at 7:10 p.m. Tuesday.

        The Reds would have liked to greet the Mariners while bearing the cachet of a team in sole possession of first place, but that went by the boards Sunday, when the Reds lost 5-1 to the Pittsburgh Pirates before 29,532 fans at Cinergy Field.

        The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Kansas City Royals 5-3 to pull into a first-place tie in the National League Central Division.

        It broke the Reds' 51-day streak of being in first place by themselves. There's a bit of a sting associated with losing sole possession — let's face it, the Reds had gotten fond of being able to stay in the spot alone — but most of the Reds' players are well-conditioned to it being a 162-game season.

        “The Cards are going to be there; we're going to be there; it's going to be up and down all year long,” Reds first baseman Sean Casey predicted. “Hopefully, it goes right down to the end of September.”

        The All-Star break is still three weeks away.

Ken Griffey Jr. reacts to flying out during the 5th inning. (Steven M. Herppich photo) | ZOOM |

        “There's a lot of ball to play — let's see where we are at the end,” Reds shortstop Barry Larkin said. “We're going to stay as close as possible, if not in first place.”

        The Cards had been been getting closer and closer in the Reds' rearview mirror. The last several days, they've looked like a semi-truck bearing down, headlights bright, horn honking.

        But the Reds kept holding them off, most dramatically Friday and Saturday when they won come-from-behind games with big home runs after long rain delays. Holding off the Cardinals had turned into a game. It was fun.

        Sunday, the only storm was the pitching of the Pirates' Jimmy Anderson (6-8), who baffled the Reds in a complete-game five-hitter. He mixed his pitches and kept the ball down. The Reds' big guns could do nothing with him.

        That was the big difference. There was no equalizer.

        For all of the power the Reds had shown Friday and Saturday, there's still the feeling they aren't going to contend for the entire year if they get away from their small-ball abilities: Get 'em on, over and in.

        “We were able to win two out of three (in the Pirates' series) with home runs, without really mounting anything,” Larkin said. “There was no real situational hitting. I think that's just a team that's struggling (offensively). We just happened to have a couple of big boppers in the lineup who got it done for us (Friday and Saturday).”

Pittsburgh shortstop Abraham Nunez tosses the ball to teammate Pokey Reese for the out as Adam Dunn slides in hard. (Steven M. Herppich photo) | ZOOM |

        The Reds are hopeful Ken Griffey Jr. is ready to play Tuesday against his old mates. But there are no guarantees.

        Griffey will work out his hamstring again today and see how it feels. He has been swinging the bat well. He ripped a line drive that was tracked down in the right-center gap Sunday.

        He got a big pinch hit Saturday that was a prelude to Adam Dunn's three-run homer that won it for the Reds in the seventh inning.

        The equalizer Sunday belonged to the Pirates. They scored four of their runs in the fourth inning off Reds starter Jimmy Haynes (7-6), on a three-run homer by Craig Wilson and a solo shot by Kevin Young.

        “As they say, great pitching stops great hitting,” Casey said. “You could've put Babe Ruth up there one through eight (against Jimmy Anderson), and it wouldn't have made any difference. Anderson brought his A-plus game (Sunday).”

        Reds second baseman Todd Walker, who had two of his team's five hits, said Anderson threw a lot of sharp-breaking sliders down and away that were hard to catch up to.

        “He was cutting it and sinking it both,” Casey said. “He'd run it in on you, then run it away from you. He hit the corners. He pitched great. You tip your hat to him and move on. He got so many groundball outs because the ball was moving so much, right through the zone.”

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