Lance Berkman hits an RBI single to tie up the score in the seventh inning. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        HOUSTON — When someone from the Houston media asked Reds manager Bob Boone about Austin Kearns and Adam Dunn on Saturday, he replied: “Pretty good draft for us, huh?”

        Yeah, pretty good. Kearns, the No. 1 pick in 1998, and Dunn, the No. 2 selection that year, provided the 1-2 punch in the Reds' 5-3, 11-inning victory over the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park.

        Kearns hit a three-run homer in the first inning, and Dunn added a two-run shot in the 11th to account for all the Reds' runs.

        In between, there was a whole lot of nothing offensively. In the 10 innings between the two homers, the Reds managed a bloop single, hit only four balls out of the infield and struck out 12 times.

        “A game like this goes long enough and someone is going to pop one,” Boone said.

        Dunn was both a likely and unlikely candidate. He leads the Reds with 25 home runs, but he hadn't hit one since Aug.8, and he has been in his worst slump of the year. When Dunn came up in the 11th, he had one hit in his last 31 at-bats.

        The homer came in Dunn's hometown, but the way he was going, that didn't matter.

Reds closer Danny Graves delivers in the 11th inning. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        “I'm just glad to hit anything,” Dunn said. “I wouldn't have cared if it was stinkin' Saudi Arabia.”

        Kearns set up the home run with a two-out infield single. The count was 1-2 and the hit-and-run was on when Dunn connected on a slider from Astros reliever Tom Gordon (1-2).

        “The funny thing is whenever we steal with me hitting, my eyes go right to the runner and I never swing,” Dunn said. “I saw (Kearns) running, but I swung anyway. That's how messed up I am.”

        Dunn crushed the pitch high and deep to right, and it landed in the second deck. The Houston scoreboard said the homer traveled 387 feet, but the Reds thought it was closer to 487.

        All that was left for Danny Graves to do was get three outs in the 11th, and the Reds' losing streak was history after five games. The victory also got the Reds back to .500 at 64-64, leaving them 2½ games behind the second-place Astros in the National League Central.

Wade Miller swings for strike three to end the fourth inning. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        Was it a relief to finally win one?

        “Very much so,” Graves said. “We see that (the) New York (Mets) have lost 12 in row, and you say, "How can that happen?' But we had lost five in a row. We played some pretty good games in there. Today, we finally had luck on our side.”

        Luck and some outstanding pitching.

        Reds right-hander Jimmy Haynes started and pitched 6 2/3 innings, allowing three runs. He gave the Reds a chance against Astros righty Wade Miller, who had an eight-game winning streak and pitched seven innings against the Reds on Monday, allowing an unearned run.

        Miller gave up singles to Todd Walker and Ken Griffey Jr. in the first. Miller followed that with his only mistake, a pitch Kearns swatted out to left for his 13th homer, extending his hitting streak to a career-high 11 games.

        Haynes left with a 3-2 lead, but the first batter his replacement, left-hander Gabe White, faced in the seventh was Lance Berkman, the Reds' nemesis. Berkman homered in the first and walked and scored in the fourth, so it was no shocker when he singled in the tying run. Berkman has seven home runs and 23 RBI against the Reds this year.

        White pitched two-thirds of an inning before turning it over to Graves (5-3). The Reds' closer tossed a career-high 3 2/3 innings and allowed only a two-out single in the 10th.

        “After every inning, (Reds pitching coach Don Gullett) asked me how I was,” Graves said. “I told him I felt like it was my game out there. If anyone was going to give it up, it was me.”

        Graves, who has been troubled by back and mechanical problems, was happy to be pitching well for a change.

        “I have to throw a lot to use all my pitches,” he said. “(Catcher) Kelly Stinnett was unbelievable today. I didn't shake him off once. That makes it easy.”

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