Adam Dunn hits his 15th HR of the year. (AP photos) | ZOOM |

        CHICAGO — No one told Todd Walker the Chicago Cubs had switched starters Wednesday. Jason Bere, not Jon Lieber, would be pitching.

        “I didn't know it was Bere until I saw him warming up,” Walker said. “I spent the last half hour, 45 minutes thinking about facing Lieber. I had some success against him on Opening Day. I was thinking about what he'd throw me.”

        And when he saw Bere?

        “I threw all that in the trash and said, "See it and hit it,'” Walker said.

        He saw the first pitch of the game and hit it — out to right field for a home run. Just like that, the Reds were on their way to an 8-6 victory over the Cubs on the warm, windy and humid day at Wrigley Field.

Cubs catcher Todd Hundley checks on pitcher Jason Bere after he was hit by a Sean Casey line drive. | ZOOM |

        That wind was blowing out, so that meant if the Reds were to win, they'd have to hit. Walker's home run, which wrapped around the foul pole, was a perfect start. It was the first of four homers by the Reds. That gave them seven in two games.

        “That got us going,” Sean Casey said. “That set the tone and woke up the bats.”

        The game would last another three hours and 27 minutes. There would be 24 more hits.

        But you had the feeling this was going to be a Reds win as soon as Walker's bat met the pitch from Bere.

        “I don't know what our record is when we score first, but it's pretty good,” Walker said. “(Hitting coach) Jim Lefebvre is always talking about that.”

Jason LaRue is safe at home when Cubs catcher Todd Hundley bobbles the ball. | ZOOM |

        Wednesday's win made the Reds 30-9 when they score first. They are 10-27 when their opponent scores first.

        An out after Walker's fourth homer, Adam Dunn hit his 15th. Starter Jimmy Haynes had a 2-0 lead before he threw a pitch.

        “The ball was flying pretty good,” Haynes said. “I just tried to keep it down as much as possible.”

        The Reds scored two more in the second — both unearned thanks to a Cubs error.

        The Cubs cut the lead in half in the second.

        But the Reds kept adding on, via the long ball. Juan Encarnacion hit his 14th homer, in the third, to make it 5-2. Bere would last only one more batter. Casey hit a vicious line drive that hit Bere squarely on the knee. Bere suffered a severe contusion.

        The Reds pushed it to 8-2 with three runs in the fifth. The big blow was Casey's two-run homer, his second homer in two days.

        “The mechanics of his approach are better,” Reds manager Bob Boone said. “He's staying on his back leg and turning. That's where your power comes from.”

Austin Kearns steals second as the wild throw eludes Cubsą 2B Chris Stynes. | ZOOM |

        Casey, who went 19 games without an RBI, is 7-for-his-last-20 (.350) with seven RBI in his last five games.

        “I don't try to hit homers,” Casey said. “But when they come, they come in bunches sometimes.”

        Boone wasn't thinking about chalking up the victory — even with the 8-2 lead.

        “I've played in this park enough to know that a five-, six-run lead isn't much with the wind blowing out,” he said.

        A six-run lead turned out to be just enough. Haynes worked six innings, allowing three runs on nine hits, to push his record to 8-6. He won eight games in all of last season with Milwaukee and lost 17.

        The biggest pitch of the game for Haynes came in the fourth. The Cubs had runners at second and third with two outs. Pinch hitter Angel Echevarria grounded into the hole. Shortstop Barry Larkin went into left field to get it and threw out Echevarria.

        “That ends up being the game-saver,” Boone said.

        The Cubs added an unearned run off John Riedling in the eighth. After Jose Silva gave up a one-out homer to Fred McGriff in the ninth and a single to Todd Hundley, closer Danny Graves came in to finish it for his 23rd save.

        Two wins in a row feel pretty good after an eight-game winless streak, but the Reds weren't ready to declare the ship righted.

        “Honestly, we haven't faced the quality of pitching we had been,” Walker said. “But hopefully it's starting to come around.”

Reds 8, Cubs 6 Reds box, runs Griffey defends workout habits White cleared for Cardinals series Reds Notebook: Larkin probably out today Bruised Bere will miss start Kile's son, victory lift Cardinals' spirits Dodgers 5, Rockies 3 Mariners 1, Athletics 0

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