Reds coach Ray Knight hugs Todd Walker after Walker drove in the winning run. (Brandi Stafford photo) | ZOOM |

        The game finally came around to Todd Walker, the Reds' hottest hitter, and he delivered.

        Walker's fourth hit of the night - a three-run double in the eighth inning - was the knockout blow in Thursday's 15-12 Reds victory over the Chicago Cubs. Cincinnati played its longest nine-inning game of the season (3 hours, 55 minutes) before 16,918 fans at Cinergy Field.

        “What a game. What a weird game,” Walker said. “It was nice to come out on top.”

        The Reds rallied from 5-0 and 6-1 deficits, only to blow leads of 9-7 and 11-9.

        Wily Mo Pena, Jose Guillen and Russell Branyan homered for the Reds. Branyan and Pena hit back-to-back shots in the second inning totaling 812 feet.

Willy Mo Pena is greeted in the dugout after his first big-league HR. (Brandi Stafford photo) | ZOOM |

        Walker equaled a career high with his four hits, putting his season average at .302.

        “He's been our hottest hitter,” Reds manager Bob Boone said. “He really came through again.”

        The Reds' offensive show was enough on a night when their pitchers - eight of them - allowed 22 hits, the most since 1988.

        The Reds have won four of their last five games, pushing their record to 72-74.

        “We want to finish strong,” Walker said. “We want to get back to .500. We've played too well for too long to give up now.”

Reggie Taylor can't catch Mark Bellhorn's seventh-inning triple. (Brandi Stafford photo) | ZOOM |

        Scott Williamson worked the Reds' only 1-2-3 inning, in the ninth, for his third save in four games. Fellow Reds reliever John Riedling (2-2) struck out the only batter he faced - Cubs pinch hitter Hee Seop Choi - to earn the win.

        "Walk' came through,” Williamson said. “He put me in a good position to close it.”

        Shawn Estes started for the Reds and had another awful outing. The left-hander allowed five runs in the first inning after starting with a walk, a hit batsman and another walk.

        Estes gave up two doubles without retiring a batter in the second. That was the end of his night.

        The start could be Estes' last for a while. The Reds are expected to activate right-hander Brian Moehler from the disabled list today.

        Estes went one-plus innings, allowing six runs on five hits. The outing was his shortest since he threw two-thirds of an inning Oct. 5 last year. Estes, who was obtained from the New York Mets in an August trade, lasted only 1 2/3 innings in his previous start. His ERA since the trade is 7.71.

Walker scores in the sixth inning. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        Fortunately for the Reds, their bats were working.

        They scored one run in the first before the power show came on in the second. Branyan led off with a high drive that landed in the red seats, the first upper-deck homer of the year at Cinergy. It was the 35th red-seat homer in stadium history and quite possibly the last - only six games remain at Cinergy.

        Pena, making his first start, followed with a laser shot to right-center for his first career homer.

        “It's nice to see a young kid do that,” Boone said. “We know about his power. He's given us better at-bats than I expected.”

Chicagošs Bobby Hill is safe at home after sliding into Reds catcher Jason LaRue in the second inning. (Brandi Stafford photo) | ZOOM |

        After the Cubs took a 7-4 lead in the fifth, Guillen hit his seventh homer of the year to cut the Reds' deficit to 7-5.

        Four runs in the sixth - Guillen and Ruben Mateo drove in two runs in back-to-back, two-out at-bats - gave the Reds their first lead of the night, 9-7.

        Joey Hamilton, the fifth Reds pitcher, gave back the lead in the seventh, allowing a pair of runs before escaping from a bases-loaded, no-out jam without further damage.

        The Reds added two runs in the seventh with the help of a Cubs' error, but Hamilton gave up three runs in the eighth.

        The Reds scored four in their half of the eighth to overcome that.

        “It was a crazy game,” Branyan said. “To come out on top says a lot about this club.”

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