By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer

PHOTO GALLERY

Photos of Sunday's game

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Scott Sullivan was finished pitching. When that's the case, he usually heads to the clubhouse to do his exercises. Sunday, he decided to stick to the dugout.

"I wanted to be there to shake some hands," he said. "It had been so long. I wanted to witness it first hand."

Sullivan got his wish. The Reds snapped a five-game losing streak with a 7-5 victory over the Montreal Expos here at Hiram Bithorn Stadium.

The Reds hit a season-high six home runs. The last two, from Adam Dunn and Felipe Lopez in the ninth, provided the margin of victory. Scott Williamson worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his third save.

Then it was high-fives and handshakes all around.

Sullivan was the winning pitcher, and among a long list of heroes. He worked two-thirds of an inning, waited out an 82-minute rain delay, then worked another perfect inning.

"He's the only pitcher I'd let do that," Reds manager Bob Boone said.

"I'm the only one dumb enough not to say no," Sullivan said. "No, really, it's no different than working both games of a doubleheader."

The Expos' sweep of the Reds in Saturday's day-night doubleheader made Sunday's game semi-critical and thoroughly sweet for the Reds.

"It felt good," said Austin Kearns, who homered for the third straight game. "We battled (Saturday) and ended up losing. Adam and Felipe came up huge. We needed a win pretty bad."

This was a bit of a roller coaster ride.

Endy Chavez led off the game with a home run off Danny Graves. It was Chavez's first career leadoff home run.

It marked the sixth straight time the Reds had fallen behind in a game.

But they quickly got back in this one, using their most reliable scoring method: A Kearns home run.

Kearns led off the second with his ninth homer of the year, putting him on pace to hit 78.

Aaron Boone followed with a bolt to left for his third homer of the year. That made it 2-1.

The Reds added three more via the long ball in the third. Jose Guillen hit his second. After Sean Casey singled, extending his hitting streak to seven games, Boone hit another one out.

Boone had gone 0-for-9 in the doubleheader.

"I was a little more relaxed today," he said. "When you're losing, you want to make sure you do well."

The Reds had a 5-1 lead. That was pretty impressive when you consider Montreal starter Tony Armas Jr. had given up just four runs in his first four starts.

Graves retired 10 straight after the Chavez home run.

But the Expos closed it to 5-4 in the fourth. Graves got out of the inning with the lead thanks to a great 4-6-3 double play.

Lopez took the feed from Boone barehanded and made a strong throw to first while leaping to avoid the runner.

Graves went 5 2/3 innings, allowing four runs over seven hits.

"That's the best he's been," Bob Boone said. "He had good location, his changeup was good."

The rest of the lead went in the seventh. Reliever Kent Mercker walked Brian Schneider. Schneider moved up on a sacrifice and scored on a Chavez single.

Just after the Expos tied it, the game was interrupted by an 82-minute rain delay.

When the game restarted, Boone used a weapon he doesn't usually have. Adam Dunn was on the bench resting with shin splints.

Dunn fell behind T.J. Tucker 0-2 with two bad swings.

"I thought, 'Here, we go again,'" said Dunn, who has struck out in nearly half his at-bats.

Tucker came in with a fastball.

"That's the pitch Adam's had trouble handling," Sullivan said. "They try to find that hole. (Dunn) closed it."

Lopez followed with his first homer of the year, and the Reds were on their way to a handshake session.

"Hopefully, this is something we can build on," Aaron Boone said. "This is a lot funner."

That's grammatically wrong, but fundamentally right.

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E-mail jfay@enquirer.com

Cincinnati	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
FLopez ss	5	1	1	1	0	2	.204
JGuillen lf	5	1	1	1	0	0	.250
Williamson p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Casey 1b	5	1	2	0	0	1	.370
Freel pr	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Taylor cf	0	0	0	0	0	0	.194
Kearns cf-rf	5	1	1	1	0	4	.292
ABoone 2b	4	2	2	3	0	1	.218
RMateo rf-lf	4	0	0	0	0	0	.194
JCastro 3b	3	0	2	0	1	1	.538
LaRue c	3	0	0	0	0	0	.180
Graves p	2	0	1	0	0	1	.143
Mercker p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Sullivan p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Dunn ph-1b	1	1	1	1	0	0	.233
Totals	37	7	11	7	1	10

Montreal	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
EnChavez cf	5	1	2	2	0	0	.290
Vidro 2b	3	0	0	0	1	0	.328
Vguerrero rf	3	1	1	0	1	0	.279
OCabrera ss	4	1	2	0	0	0	.261
Wilkerson lf	4	1	1	2	0	3	.281
Tatis 3b	4	0	1	1	0	0	.273
Liefer 1b	4	0	1	0	0	1	.209
Schneider c	2	1	0	0	1	1	.222
Barrett c	1	0	0	0	0	1	.095
Armas Jr. p	2	0	0	0	0	0	.200
Tucker p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
HMateo ph	0	0	0	0	0	0	.400
Ayala p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Calloway ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.290
Totals	33	5	8	5	3	6

Cincinnati	023	000	002	-7	11	1
Montreal	100	300	100	-5	8	0

E-Kearns (1). LOB-Cincinnati 6, Montreal 5. 2B-OCabrera (4), Wilkerson (4), Tatis (5). HR-FLopez (1) off Ayala; Dunn (7) off Ayala; JGuillen (2) off Armas Jr.; ABoone 2 (4) off Armas Jr. 2; Kearns (9) off Armas Jr.; EnChavez (2) off Graves. RBIs-FLopez (3), JGuillen (3), Kearns (19), ABoone 3 (11), Dunn (12), EnChavez 2 (6), Wilkerson 2 (10), Tatis (9). SB-VGuerrero (3). S-Graves, HMateo. GIDP-Schneider.

DP-Cincinnati 1

Cincinnati	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Graves	5 2/3	7	4	4	1	3	79	8.02
Mercker	2/3	1	1	1	1	1	23	3.38
Sullivan W, 1-0	1 2/3	0	0	0	1	1	26	4.66
Williamson S, 3	1	0	0	0	0	1	7	1.00

Montreal	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Armas Jr.	6	8	5	5	1	6	98	2.61
Tucker	1	0	0	0	0	2	15	3.68
Ayala L, 1-1	2	3	2	2	0	2	29	4.63

Inherited runners-scored-Mercker 1-0, Sullivan 1-0.

IBB-off Sullivan (VGuerrero) 1. HBP-by Armas Jr. (LaRue). Balk-Mercker.

T-2:52. A-11,619 (18,200).