Center fielder Juan Encarnacion dives to catch a Bret Boone drive in the fourth inning. DESKTOP WALLPAPER Click to load full-sized image, then right-click to "Set As Background." (AP Photo/Tom Uhlman) | WALLPAPER |

        Oh, so that's how you win 116 games in one regular season. Granted, this Seattle Mariners team hasn't been playing as well as last year's version that broke all the records for victories, but it certainly had the Reds' number at Cinergy Field.

        The Reds lost to the Mariners for the third straight night, this time in a 3-2 heartbreaker Thursday before 27,908 fans.

        This game bore no resemblance to Tuesday's blowout or Wednesday's shutout, but it was a still a loss, the Reds' fourth straight.

        They scored a total of four runs in those four games.

        But when Barry Larkin doubled into the left-center gap to open the Reds' eighth inning with his team down by a run, the fans responded with a tumultous roar that as much as said:

        “Now this is what we came to see!”

        In the Reds' sixth inning, Juan Encarnacion had broken the Reds' 0-for-27 slump with runners in scoring position, chasing another Larkin double with a bolt that cleared the 14-foot-high left-center wall just to the left of the Black Monster in center.

Scott Williamson, Gabe White and Danny Graves (top to bottom) helped keep the game close. (Tony Jones photos)

        “Man, when he hits 'em, there's no doubt,” said Reds pitcher Joey Hamilton, who pitched well (6 2/3 innings, two earned runs) but was undone in the sixth inning by a hanging changeup to John Olerud (crushed single) and a bad slider to Ruben Sierra (two-run homer).

        What killed the Reds was Hamilton's throwing error in the second inning, after he had hit Desi Relaford, gave up a single to Dan Wilson, and then picked up a nubber on the right side by pitcher James Baldwin and threw it past Sean Casey at first. Desi scored from third (“Lucy, I'm home!”)

        Did Hamilton lose the grip on Baldwin's ball?

        “No, but I (rushed it),” he said. “When I got to the ball, he was right next to me. I figured I had to bare-hand it. It turns out I had more time than I thought. I threw a low sinker to Casey.”

        But now, in the eighth inning, here was Encarnacion up again with Larkin on second and none out. Larkin had hit the ball on the sweet spot off Mariners' reliever Shigetoshi Hasegawa.

        Could Encarnacion do it again?

        The fans, all 27,908 of them, seemed to think so.

        “Juan! Juan! Juan!” they chanted.

        Encarnacion nailed it, but left fielder Charles Gipson (a defensive replacement for Ruben Sierra in the seventh) made a running grab toward the line and went to his knees.

        The collective moan could be heard in Newport.

        “That's baseball,” Encarnacion said. “Next time, I might hit one soft and it drops in. When you're (i.e. the team) is going bad, they catch 'em.”

        Casey grounded out up the middle, sending Larkin to third.

        The Reds' hope now was Adam Dunn, who had struck out in his previous two at-bats, so the fans might have figured he was due. They gave the big Texan a loud ovation, too. This was the Reds' one chance for redemption. They had fallen two games behind St. Louis in the National League Central in the previous two nights, but now they had a chance to show they would not go gently.

        Seattle manager Lou Piniella — who had skippered the Reds' 1990 World Championship team, and was greeted by “Looooooo!” chants every time he came to the mound to replace a pitcher Thursday night -- had brought in Kazuhiro Sasaki to face Dunn.

Mariners closer Kazuhiro Sasaki has given up a grand total of one (1) earned run in 2002. (AP Photo/Tom Uhlman) | ZOOM |

        Surely, there would be some joy in the River City.

        If this set-up has a “Casey at the Bat” ring to it, you know your baseball. Dunn took strike three. He left Larkin at third, the Reds reeling, and himself scratching his head.

        “I don't know how hard (the pitch) was, but it looked like a hundred (mph),” Dunn said. “He has a lot of pitches, including the best splitty (split-finger pitch) in all of baseball. And then he throws a 96 mile-an-hour fastball in.

        “It seems like when you're going bad, like we're going right now, you're up there guessing, and you're guessing totally opposite (of what gets thrown). . . . We can't get a big hit to save our lives.”

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