Enquirer staff and wire services

Shannon Stewart, Josh Phelps and Eric Hinske homered Saturday to lead the Toronto Blue Jays over the Cincinnati Reds 4-1.

Stewart hit an opposite field, two-run homer in the seventh off loser John Rieding. Phelps and Hinske hit consecutive homers in the eighth off Reds' closer Scott Williamson.

Cincinnati's Danny Graves, converting from a closer to a starter this season, worked out of the stretch during his entire outing and had his best game this spring. He allowed six hits in five shutout innings, struck out two and walked none.

"Things are going too well not to throw out of the stretch," Graves said. "I've got all four pitches working. Why even worry about going back to the windup?"

Toronto's Cory Lidle allowed one run and two hits in six innings, throwing 62 pitches.

"I was actually supposed to only go five innings," Lidle said. "But my pitch count was so low. I'm ready to go now, my arm strength is there."

Stewart, Phelps, Frank Catalanotto and Vernon Wells each had two hits for Toronto.

Winner Jeff Tam allowed one hit in a scoreless seventh, and Justin Miller followed with two hitless innings for a save, completing a three-hitter.

Cincinnati's Jose Guillen had an RBI double in the second.

The Reds fell to .500 overall at 12-12-2. They've lost seven of their last 10 games.

The arms: Starter Danny Graves (five innings, six hits, no runs) was very good. Scott Sullivan pitched a scoreless inning. But John Riedling (one inning, two runs) and Scott Williamson (one inning, two runs) were rocked. Williamson gave up home runs on back-to-back pitches, to Josh Phelps and Eric Hinske. In their last four innings, Riedling and Williamson have combined to give up 10 runs - that's a 22.50 ERA.

The bats: The Reds managed only three hits - singles by Sean Casey and Ken Griffey Jr., and a double by Jose Guillen. Guillen has hit in six straight games (9-for-20, .450).

Up next: The Reds are at Sarasota today for a 1:05 p.m. game against Cleveland. Ryan Dempster (2-1, 1.37 ERA) faces John Burkett 91-0, 6.75).

CINCINNATI					TORONTO
	ab	r	h	bi		ab	r	h	bi
Lopez ss	4	0	0	0	Stewart lf	4	1	2	2
Boone 2b	4	0	0	0	Ctlntto dh	3	0	1	0
Griffey Jr cf	3	0	1	0	Gross ph	1	0	0	0
Taylor cf	1	0	0	0	Wells cf	4	0	2	0
Larson 3b	3	0	0	0	Myers c	3	0	0	0
Casey 1b	3	1	1	0	Chaffrdo c	1	0	0	0
Guillen lf	3	0	1	1	Phelps 1b	4	1	2	1
Mateo rf	2	0	0	0	Hinske 3b	3	1	2	1
LaRue c	2	0	0	0	Wdwrd ss	4	0	1	0
Stinett c	1	0	0	0	Ryan rf	4	0	0	0
Graves p	1	0	0	0	Berg 2b	3	1	0	0
Pena ph	0	0	0	0
Sullivan p	0	0	0	0
Riedling p	0	0	0	0
Guerero ph	1	0	0	0
Willmsn p	0	0	0	0
Totals	28	1	3	1	Totals	34	4	10	4

Cincinnati	010	000	000-1
Toronto	000	000	22x-4

DP-Toronto 1. LOB-Cincinnati 2, Toronto 8. 2B-Guillen. HR-Stewart (2), Phelps (3), Hinske (3). SB-Griffey Jr. (1). CS-Pena.

	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
Cincinnati
Graves	5	6	0	0	0	2
Sullivan	1	0	0	0	1	1
Riedling L, 1-1	1	2	2	2	1	0
Williamson	1	2	2	2	0	1
Toronto
Lidle	6	2	1	1	1	3
Tam W, 1-1	1	1	0	0	0	1
JMiller S, 1	2	0	0	0	0	1

HBP-by Lidle (Mateo). WP-Graves. T-2:14. A-3,527.