By Bill Koch
The Cincinnati Enquirer

PHOTO GALLERY

Photos of Sunday's game

The purge has worked.

Since general manager Jim Bowden overhauled the roster following the doubleheader sweep at the hands of the Montreal Expos April 19, the Reds have won five of their last seven games.

Granted, those wins have come against the light-hitting Los Angeles Dodgers and the rebuilding San Diego Padres, but for a club that was 5-13 at one point, any win is encouraging.

The Reds still strike out too much and aren't very sound fundamentally, but their starting pitching has improved immensely and they've tightened their defense after moving Aaron Boone from second base back to his natural position at third.

On Sunday, the Reds received another strong outing from their starting pitcher when right-hander Paul Wilson worked seven innings, allowing three runs on eight hits in the Reds' 7-5 victory over the Padres at Great American Ball Park.

Reds' starters have posted a 3.61 ERA in their last seven games, markedly better than the 7.99 ERA they compiled in their first 18.

"The bottom line is the pitching has been better," Bob Boone said. "We're struggling in a lot of areas, but you can win (with good pitching)."

Wilson gave up a run in the first inning on a Rondell White homer, but the Reds responded with two runs in the second, including two key hits with two out, something they rarely did during their 5-13 start.

The Reds got plenty of help from the Padres as the afternoon wore on in the form of seven walks and two errors, so it may be tempting to exaggerate Sunday's win. But remember, earlier in the season, the Reds were making those mistakes and getting blown out.

Sending Brandon Larson back to Triple-A has enabled Aaron Boone to shore things up at third. Juan Castro has been solid at second, and pitchers Chris Reitsma and Jeff Austin, recalled from Louisville last Saturday, have both pitched well.

Aaron Boone is reluctant to make too much of his switch back to third, but concedes the club has played more efficiently with him at the hot corner.

"Things are starting to happen better for us," he said. "When you get starting pitching like we've got the last week and you can pick up the ball, you're going to win some games. And we're scoring runs, getting on base.

"We had that stretch where it was 5-0 or 6-0 before you could blink. That's a bad way to play baseball."

Add it all up and there's a much more upbeat feeling in the clubhouse as the Reds embark on a six-game road trip beginning Tuesday night in Colorado and finishing with three games next weekend in San Francisco.

"This is what we expected," said outfielder Austin Kearns, who turned in two brilliant defensive plays against the Padres. "We're not a team that can just show up and beat somebody. We've got to battle for nine innings."

---

E-mail bkoch@enquirer.com

Reds 7, Padres 5

San Diego	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
RVazquez ss	4	1	1	1	1	0	.284
Loretta 2b	4	0	1	1	0	0	.247
Klesko 1b	5	2	2	2	0	1	.277
White lf	5	1	3	1	0	0	.270
Hansen 3b	3	0	0	0	1	1	.267
Nady rf	2	0	1	0	0	0	.250
Buchanan rf	2	0	0	0	0	0	.286
WGonzalez c	4	0	1	0	0	0	.250
Victorino cf	4	0	0	0	0	0	.182
Lawrence p	2	0	0	0	0	0	.231
Villafuerte p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Lockhart ph	1	0	1	0	0	0	.296
Herges p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Orosco p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Burroughs ph	1	1	1	0	0	0	.188
Totals	37	5	11	5	2	2

Cincinnati	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Freel 2b	3	0	0	0	0	0	.125
JCastro 2b	1	0	0	0	0	0	.250
JGuillen rf	4	0	2	1	0	0	.286
Heredia p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Riedling p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Williamson p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Casey 1b	3	0	0	2	2	0	.312
Kearns cf-rf	4	0	1	0	1	1	.286
ABoone 3b	5	2	1	0	0	2	.238
Dunn lf	4	1	0	0	1	2	.218
FLopez ss	4	2	2	1	0	1	.240
Stinnett c	3	2	2	1	1	1	.360
PWilson p	1	0	0	1	1	1	.000
Taylor ph-cf	0	0	0	0	1	0	.205
Totals	32	7	8	6	7	8

San Diego	100	020	011	-5	11	2
Cincinnati	020	140	00x	-7	8	1

E-RVazquez (2), Lawrence (1), FLopez (6). LOB-San Diego 8, Cincinnati 11. 2B-WGonzalez (4), FLopez (5), Stinnett 2 (5). HR-White (7), off Heredia; RVazquez (1), off PWilson; Klesko 2 (6), off PWilson 2. RBIs-RVazquez (10), Loretta (6), Klesko 2 (19), White (17), JGuillen (6), Casey 2 (11), FLopez (6), Stinnett (3), PWilson (1). SB-ABoone (4), Taylor (2). SF-PWilson. GIDP-Victorino.

DP-Cincinnati 1 (Casey, FLopez and Casey).

San Diego	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Lawrence L, 2-3	4 1/3	6	7	5	6	4	103	3.86
Villafuerte	1 2/3	1	0	0	0	2	30	6.91
Herges	1 2/3	1	0	0	1	2	30	0.90
Orosco	1/3	0	0	0	0	0	5	4.50

Cincinnati	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
PWilson W, 1-2	7	8	3	3	0	1	97	3.48
Heredia	1/3	1	1	1	1	0	15	2.08
Riedling H, 1	2/3	0	0	0	0	0	7	5.54
Williamson S, 5	1	2	1	1	1	1	21	1.64

Inherited runners-scored-Villafuerte 2-2, Orosco 1-0, Riedling 1-0.

IBB-off Lawrence (Stinnett) 1. HBP-by Villafuerte (Freel), by Lawrence (JGuillen), by PWilson (Loretta).

T-2:58. A-25,466 (42,263).