By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer

CHICAGO - When you can't hit, field or pitch, you don't win many baseball games.

That's precisely the Reds' situation.

PHOTO GALLERY

Photos of Wednesday's game

They entered Wednesday last in the National League in pitching, last in fielding and second-last in hitting.

And they played to that level or lower in Wednesday's 10-4 loss to the Chicago Cubs before a crowd of 27,388 on a chilly day at Wrigley Field.

It was the Reds' sixth loss in their last eight games and third in their last four.

"Struggling is a word to use," outfielder Austin Kearns said. "What it is is embarrassing to everybody. We're struggling as a team. We've got to find a way to turn it around. It's absolutely no fun to go out and get pounded."

The last three losses have been by the scores of 13-1, 11-1 and 10-4.

The Reds are 5-10 - their worst start since 1997. The only thing keeping them out of sole possession of last place in the National League Central is the equally hapless Milwaukee Brewers.

It's hard to pinpoint a blame for the lousy start. That's because the Reds are so bad in so many areas:

• The Reds' pitchers walked 11 hitters in a nine-inning game for the first time since May 27, 2000.

"Is that all?" Reds manager Bob Boone said. "We nibbled around. You saw what happened when Gabe (White) went after them. You can't be afraid of bats."

White pitched the only 1-2-3 inning of the game for the Reds.

• The Reds continued to struggle in the clutch. They stretched their hitless streak with runners in scoring position to 23 before Kelly Stinnett's RBI double in the eighth.

"We're chasing an awful lot of pitches," Boone said. "If you have a semi-veteran club like (the Cubs), you don't chase. It's the same with the Phillies."

• The Reds committed an error Wednesday, giving them at least one in 12 of their 15 games.

• The team ERA over the last five games is a whopping 8.16.

• The Reds are up to 121 strikeouts - that's a pace to blow away the team record of 1,187, set last year - and have only 112 hits.

Boone insists that the mood of the team is OK.

"They're not in a good mood after walking off the field after that (loss)," Boone said. "But they've bounced back pretty well."

Paul Wilson, the most effective starter in the early season, had his first rough outing as a Red on Wednesday.

Wilson got a routine groundball to start the game, but shortstop Felipe Lopez booted it for his fourth error. (Lopez, the shortstop of the future, has started only eight games, but he's on pace to commit 43 errors.)

Alex Gonzalez followed with a single, and Sammy Sosa hit his second home run in as many days.

An out later, Hee Seop Choi hit his second home run in two days. The rout was on.

Damian Miller led off the fourth with a home run, and Wilson would not finish the inning.

Wilson went 3 2/3 innings, allowing six runs (five earned) on six hits. His ERA went from 1.42 to 3.86.

The short outing marked a full turn through the rotation without a starter going more than five innings.

Cincinnati	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
FLopez ss	5	1	3	0	0	0	.189
ABoone 2b	4	0	0	0	0	1	.213
Casey 1b	5	1	2	0	0	1	.333
Kearns cf	1	0	0	0	4	1	.286
Dunn lf	3	0	1	0	2	1	.208
LaRue c	2	0	0	0	0	2	.220
Williamson p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Riedling p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
c-Taylor ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.185
GWhite p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
JGuillen ph	1	0	0	0	0	1	.308
RMateo rf	5	1	2	0	0	2	.200
JCastro 3b	4	1	1	0	1	0	.400
PWilson p	1	0	0	0	0	1	.000
Mercker p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Stinnett c	3	0	1	1	0	2	.455
Totals	35	4	10	1	7	12

Chicago	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Grudzielanek 2b	5	3	2	1	0	0	.333
ASGonzalez ss	5	1	3	0	0	1	.345
REMartinez ph-ss	1	0	0	0	0	0	.214
SSosa rf	2	2	1	3	3	1	.348
O'Leary lf	1	0	0	0	0	0	.091
Alou lf	5	1	1	3	0	2	.346
Goodwin rf	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Choi 1b	1	1	1	2	4	0	.276
JuCruz p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Remlinger p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Borowski p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
CPatterson cf	5	0	1	0	0	1	.298
Bellhorn 3b	3	0	0	0	2	1	.163
DMiller c	3	2	2	1	2	1	.293
Zambrano p	1	0	0	0	0	0	.167
LHarris ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.286
Farnsworth p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Guthrie p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Karros ph-1b	1	0	0	0	0	0	.211
Totals	34	10	11	10	11	7

Cincinnati	001	100	011	-4	10	1
Chicago	400	210	30x	-10	11	2

E-FLopez (4), Choi (2), Zambrano (1). LOB-Cincinnati 14, Chicago 14. 2B-FLopez (3), Casey (3), RMateo (1), Stinnett (3). HR-Alou (1) off Riedling; DMiller (3) off PWilson; Choi (3) off PWilson; SSosa (3) off PWilson. RBIs-Stinnett (2), Grudzielanek (2), SSosa 3 (12), Alou 3 (15), Choi 2 (7), DMiller (9). CS-JCastro (1). S-PWilson, Zambrano 2. GIDP-Dunn.

Cincinnati	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
PWilson L, 0-1	3 2/3	6	6	5	3	1	71	3.86
Mercker	1	2	1	1	2	1	29	1.93
Williamson	1 1/3	0	0	0	3	3	38	0.00
Riedling	1	3	3	3	3	2	37	7.71
GWhite	1	0	0	0	0	0	5	2.25

Chicago	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Zambrano W, 2-1	6	5	2	0	3	7	108	1.47
Farnsworth	2/3	1	0	0	1	1	17	2.84
Guthrie	1/3	0	0	0	0	1	5	2.08
JuCruz	1	3	1	1	0	0	19	8.59
Remlinger	2/3	1	1	1	3	2	31	5.40
Borowski	1/3	0	0	0	0	1	5	0.00

PB-DMiller 2.

Umpires-Home, Gerry Davis; First, Ed Rapuano; Second, Mark Carlson; Third, Paul Nauert.

T-3:29. A-27,388 (39,241).