Ken Griffey, Jr. hits a solo homer in the second inning. DESKTOP WALLPAPER: Click the thumbnail above to load the full-sized image. Then Right Click the image and Set As Background on your computer's desktop! (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        NEW YORK — The Reds had to like their chances when they reached the seventh inning Sunday. Jimmy Haynes, their 11-game winner, was pitching with a 4-1 lead, and the bullpen was relatively rested.

        But the Reds' offense went quiet, Haynes ran out of gas and the bullpen couldn't save him, thanks largely to some shoddy defense.

        It added up to a 6-5 loss to the New York Mets in the finale of a three-game series before 37,391 fans at Shea Stadium.

        “This is a tough loss,” Reds manager Bob Boone said. “We had it right there — if we make a pitch, if we catch the ball.”

        Said Haynes: “This is one we should have won, especially leading 4-1 in the seventh. This game is funny sometimes. You'll be going great one minute, and the next minute, it falls apart.”

        That is an apt description of the seventh, an inning from hell for the Reds. The Mets scored four runs — all earned — but with good defense by the Reds, the inning certainly would have been different.

        Rey Ordonez started the frame with a bunt single. An out later, Roberto Alomar singled past Haynes.

        “I should have made the play on Alomar,” Haynes said. “It went off my glove.”

        Timo Perez got Ordonez home with a single. Perez ended up at second and Alomar at third on left fielder Russell Branyan's error.

Adam Dunn hits an RBI single during the third inning. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        For all his success this year, Haynes has gotten through the seventh inning once in 22 starts.

        “He was getting toward his number (of pitches),” Boone said. “But he got through the sixth fine. He deserved to start the seventh. We had leeway if he got in trouble.”

        That leeway disappeared with Alomar's single. On came Reds right-hander Scott Williamson, who hadn't allowed 11 inherited runners to score this season.

        That streak ended quickly. Alomar scored and Perez went to third when one of Williamson's pitches to Mike Piazza got through Reds catcher Jason LaRue for a passed ball.

        “You can't fault Jason,” Williamson said. “It was a tough pitch to catch.”

        Boone did. LaRue had two passed balls in the game, giving him 11 this year.

        “That's horrible,” Boone said.

John Valentin's two-run double in the seventh inning was a killer. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        Williamson struck out Piazza, and with first base open, he intentionally walked Mets slugger Mo Vaughn. That brought up John Valentin, who was getting a spot start at third base.

        Williamson fell behind 2-0 before giving Valentin a pitch to hit. Valentin hit the fastball well, but got under it.

        “I thought it was a popup,” Williamson said. “But it got up in the wind and kept carrying and carrying.”

        Branyan thought he had a play on it.

        “I thought I'd just have to go back a little bit,” he said. “Once it carried, I still thought I could catch it.”

        Because of that, Branyan was too close to the wall when the ball went off it. The ball bounced past Branyan, allowing Vaughn, never to confused with a sprinter, to score all the way from first and make it 5-4 Mets.

        “I had no chance to retreat,” Branyan said.

        Again, Boone saw it differently.

        “We didn't play that very well,” he said.

        New York added a run in the ninth on Roger Cedeno's solo home run off Reds left-hander Bruce Chen.

        That run proved crucial when Branyan homered off Mets closer Armando Benitez leading off the ninth.

        Early on, the game had the makings of a blowout.

        Ken Griffey Jr.'s first homer since coming off the disabled list Monday — a solo shot to start the second — gave the Reds a 1-0 lead. Adam Dunn's RBI single in the second made it 2-0.

        The Reds had Mets starter Steve Trachsel in trouble in the fourth. Austin Kearns singled and Branyan doubled to start the inning. Brandon Larson got both baserunners home with a single.

        But Trachsel retired 11 of the last 12 batters he faced. The Reds didn't get another runner past second until Branyan's homer in the ninth.

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