From the start, it was a different sort of night.

        Reds catcher Jason LaRue didn't know how different.

Jason LaRue scrambles after one of his three passed balls in the first inning. | ZOOM |

LaRue can't handle a wild pitch from Jared Fernandez. (Brandi Stafford photos) | ZOOM |

        He didn't know what Reds pitcher Jared Fernandez knew.

        And even if he had known, there wasn't a darned thing he could have done about it.

        The 65-minute rain delay to start Wednesday's game, followed by a continuation of hot, humid, windless air, had monster knuckleball written all over it.

        In the first inning alone, Fernandez and LaRue combined on three passed balls and a wild pitch. That, sprinkled among two singles and two walks, produced two unearned runs for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

        In the end, those two runs - and one more - were all the D'backs needed. They beat the Reds 7-2 before 20,320 fans at Cinergy Field.

        “I've never seen a ball move like that,” LaRue said. “To begin with, the knuckleball is the hardest pitch to catch in the game. But that (inning), that knuckler was going four different directions coming out of his hand. The book is to stay calm and react to the ball right at the very end, but you saw what happened.”

        In the bottom of the second, the Reds struck three pitches sharply off D'backs starter Brian Anderson (double by Adam Dunn, and singles by Austin Kearns and Sean Casey) and ultimately plated two runs to tie things up.

Jared Fernandez reacts after giving up a hit. (Brandi Stafford photo) | ZOOM |

        Were the Reds going to shed the nickname hung on them Tuesday?

        Were “The (Squirt) Guns of August” going to beat a good team?

        No.

        Arizona kept the five-run lead it had built as of 10:41 p.m., when the game was stopped for more rain, before resuming 32 minutes later.

        The loss dropped the Reds 41/2 games behind the first-place St.Louis Cardinals in the National League Central and 1 1/2 games behind the second-place Houston Astros.

        The Reds met their enemy in the fifth inning - themselves.

        What was being sprinkled at that point wasn't passed balls and wild pitches. It was the seeds of undoing.

Sean Casey prepares to tag out Junior Spivey on a pickoff play in the first inning. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        Fernandez was removed in the top of the fifth with two outs - not because of anything he had done, but because there was a man at third base, and Reds manager Bob Boone wasn't convinced LaRue would be able to keep him there. That is how much Fernandez's knuckler was dancing.

        “I understood Bob's move completely,” Fernandez said. “I have his back 100 percent on that. I wanted to stay in, sure. But I don't question it. I know why he did it. There was a (high risk) of a passed ball or wild pitch there.”

        Short term, the move worked as left-handed reliever Gabe White got Erubiel Durazo to fly out to end the inning.

        Long term, it was a disaster.

        Reds reliever John Riedling (1-2) coughed up two runs in the sixth (two-run double by Tony Womack), and two more in the seventh (two-out, two-run homer by Steve Finley) before leaving the game with a strained right groin.

        Riedling will be re-evaluated today.

Barry Larkin walks off the field when a rain delay was called in the eighth inning. (Brandi Stafford photo) | ZOOM |

        So will the Reds.

        Will D'backs left-handed ace Randy Johnson hang the R.I.P. sign on them, dropping the Reds' record to 17-35 vs.teams with records at .500 or above?

        Or will the Reds produce another of their back-from-the brink miracle victories?

        The Reds will play 18 of their next 21 games against teams with records currently above .500.

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