By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer

How bad was it? This bad: The Reds' starting pitcher, Jimmy Haynes, gave up six runs in the second inning. The Reds had two hits - one from Haynes - through six innings. And the bullpen gave up four runs in five innings.

It all added up to a 10-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates in the inaugural regular-season game at Great American Ball Park. The game was not closer than the score indicates. The Reds were outhit 12-4 and were basically out of it after falling behind 6-0 in the second inning.

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"They whipped us today," Aaron Boone said.

The sellout crowd of 42,343 will remember the pregame ceremony - a red, white and blue celebration worthy of the new, $280 million yard - but they also have to be wondering if the 2003 Reds are worthy.

"It's just one day," Barry Larkin said. "But it is Opening Day. We got beat up. That's no fun."

Opening Day is just one game - no matter how much emphasis Cincinnati puts on it - so quite a few Reds trotted out the there-are-161-games-to-play line.

"Opening Day is so hyped," Sean Casey said. "Everybody wants everything to happen in one day."

The Reds' problems, however, go back a lot further if you include how the exhibition season ended. The Reds have lost 15 of their last 19 games. They've scored one run in each of the first three games they've played in the new park, including a pair of exhibition losses.

And they've scored two runs or fewer in seven of their last 10 games.

"We haven't hit the last 10 days of spring training," Reds manager Bob Boone said.

Eight of the Reds' 27 outs came on pop-ups.

The Reds are confident their lineup will hit. When you have Casey in the No. 6 hole, it indicates you have a good lineup.

"We've got to hit better," Casey said. "On paper, our lineup is one of the best - on paper."

The day started off perfectly. The weather was warm enough - 53 degrees and sunny - for the crowd to enjoy the hour-long pregame ceremony. Lee Greenwood got it going with "God Bless the USA."

He was followed by Daniel Rodriguez's stirring version of the national anthem.

Former President George Herbert Walker Bush threw out the first pitch and said a few words.

"The energy in the crowd, especially with what's going on, was pretty special," Aaron Boone said.

Haynes threw a 1-2-3 first inning. Ken Griffey Jr. doubled down the right-field line in the Reds' first for the first hit in Great American Ball Park. But he was stranded at second, a hint of things to come.

Haynes struck out Aramis Ramirez to start the second, but Randall Simon followed with a double.

Then, former Red Reggie Sanders, a late-spring signee with the Pirates, hit a 3-2 pitch out to just left of the Reds' bullpen in center field.

Another former Red, Pokey Reese, followed with a single up the middle.

With Jack Wilson at the plate, Haynes used his best move to try to get Reese at first.

"I thought he got him," first baseman Casey said. "Obviously, Larry didn't."

Larry would be first-base umpire Larry Vanover, so his opinion was the one that counted.

Haynes got Wilson to ground out. He he gotten the call on Reese, there would have been three outs and the inning would have been over. But it was far from over.

Haynes walked pitcher Kris Benson.

"That was huge," Bob Boone said. "You can't do things like that and win."

Kenny Lofton, another late Pirates signee, hit a home run to right field to make it 5-0.

Jason Kendall followed Lofton's shot with the third homer of the inning to make it 6-0.

The Reds had a chance to get back in it in the third. Haynes started it with a one-out double. Larkin walked, and Aaron Boone reached on an error.

Griffey struck out, but Austin Kearns got a run home with a walk. But Adam Dunn flied out to end the inning, leaving the bases loaded.

The bullpen, so solid in spring training, allowed four runs on eight hits in five innings, making a bad day a little worse.

Pittsburgh	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Lofton cf	4	2	2	3	1	0	.500
Kendall c	5	1	1	1	0	0	.200
BGiles lf	4	1	1	1	1	0	.250
Aramirez 3b	5	1	2	0	0	2	.400
Simon 1b	4	2	2	1	0	0	.500
KYoung 1b	1	0	0	0	0	0	.000
RSanders rf	5	1	3	2	0	2	.600
Reese 2b	3	1	1	2	1	0	.333
JWilson ss	3	0	0	0	1	1	.000
Tavarez p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Beimel p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Benson p	1	1	0	0	1	1	.000
ANunez ss	1	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Totals	36	10	12	10	5	6

Cincinnati	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Larkin ss	3	0	0	0	1	0	.000
ABoone 2b	4	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Griffey Jr. cf	4	0	1	0	0	1	.250
Kearns rf	3	0	0	1	1	1	.000
Dunn lf	4	0	0	0	0	1	.000
Casey 1b	4	0	1	0	0	0	.250
Larson 3b	4	0	0	0	0	0	.000
LaRue c	3	0	0	0	1	1	.000
JHaynes p	1	1	1	0	0	0	1.000
a-WPena ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Heredia p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Sullivan p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Riedling p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
b-Taylor ph	1	0	1	0	0	0	1.000
GWhite p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Williamson p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Totals	32	1	4	1	3	4

Pittsburgh	060	010	210	-10	12	2
Cincinnati	001	000	000	-1	4	0

a-flied out for Haynes in the 4th. b-singled for Riedling in the 7th.

E-ARamirez (1), Reese (1). LOB-Pittsburgh 6, Cincinnati 7. 2B-BGiles (1), Simon 2 (2), Griffey Jr. (1), JHaynes (1). HR-Kendall (1) off JHaynes; Lofton (1) off JHaynes; RSanders (1) off JHaynes. RBIs-Lofton 3 (3), Kendall (1), BGiles (1), Simon (1), RSanders 2 (2), Reese 2 (2), Kearns (1). S-Benson. SF-Reese. GIDP-Larkin.

Runners left in scoring position-Pittsburgh 4 (Kendall, ARamirez, Benson 2); Cincinnati 3 (Kearns, Dunn 2).

Runners moved up-JWilson.

Pittsburgh	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Benson W, 1-0	6 1/3	3	1	0	3	3	104	0.00
Tavarez	1 2/3	0	0	0	0	0	11	0.00
Beimel	1	1	0	0	0	1	9	0.00

Cincinnati	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
JHaynes L, 0-1	4	5	6	6	3	3	87	13.50
Heredia	1/3	1	1	1	1	0	14	27.00
Sullivan	1 2/3	1	0	0	1	2	29	0.00
Riedling	1	3	2	2	0	0	13	18.00
Gwhite	1	2	1	1	0	0	26	9.00
Williamson	1	0	0	0	0	1	10	0.00

Inherited runners-scored-Tavarez 2-0, Sullivan 2-1.

Umpires-Home, Randy Marsh; First, Larry Vanover; Second, Greg Gibson; Third, Sam Holbrook.

T-3:00. A-42,343 ( , 0).