By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer

PHOTO GALLERY

Photos of Saturday's game

SAN FRANCISCO - When the ball left Adam Dunn's bat, he figured maybe it would make the warning track.

The crowd at Pacific Bell Park hoped it wasn't a grand slam.

Dunn based his calculation on where the ball came off the bat and karma.

"When you're going good, those go out or off the wall," he said. "When you're stinking it up, they always catch 'em."

Marvin Benard did catch it, right against the wall in left field. A would-be grand slam was a long sacrifice fly. The lead was cut to four instead of one. And the Reds ended up losing 9-6 to the San Francisco Giants.

"We battle," Reds manager Bob Boone said. "We really battle."

The battling Saturday merely turned a blowout into a mildly interesting game.

The Reds' winning streak ended at three games. They need to beat the Giants today to extend their streak of winning series to four.

But Saturday's comeback, even though it fell short, illustrated how powerful this Reds team can be.

So powerful that San Francisco manager Felipe Alou was threatening to check bats.

Saturday did not start well for the Reds. Paul Wilson, their most consistent starter, had an awful day: 3 2/3 innings, nine runs (eight earned) on nine hits.

"I left the ball up all day," Wilson said. "There isn't much to say. I was just really terrible."

Wilson was lit up for four runs in the first inning. It is the third time in six starts that he has given up four runs in the first.

Wilson consistently got ahead of batters in the inning but couldn't close the deal.

He walked Ray Durham after getting ahead 0-2. He struck out Rich Aurilia. He then got Barry Bonds to pop one into shallow right. It was too deep for second baseman Ryan Freel, and right fielder Jose Guillen was late breaking in on the ball. It fell for a single.

"That changed the inning," Boone said. "That's Jose's ball."

"I was playing on the warning track," Guillen said. "That's how we play Bonds. I was expecting the second baseman to catch it. No excuses. I should have caught it, but I started too late."

Jose Cruz Jr. made Wilson pay with a two-run triple. Andres Galarraga followed with a two-run homer.

The Reds got a run back in the second on Kelly Stinnett's sacrifice fly.

The Giants added three runs in the third and two in the fourth.

Wilson didn't make it through the fourth. It was 9-1 when he left.

But the Reds' relief corps threw 4 1/3 scoreless innings that allowed the Reds to try to rally.

Guillen got the Reds rolling with a mammoth three-run homer - a shot to center that traveled an estimated 460 feet.

"Felipe (Alou) said he wanted to check my bat," Guillen said. "I was so mad. I'm 225 (pounds). I can hit that far. I'll give him all my bats."

Guillen's home run might have been unusually long. But his big day was par for the course. Guillen went 2-for-4 and is hitting. 400 in an eight-game hitting streak with four homers and 13 RBI.

The homer made it 9-4.

It stayed that way until the ninth.

Cincinnati	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
FLopez ss	4	0	1	0	1	0	.237
Dunn lf	4	0	0	1	0	3	.228
Casey 1b	4	1	1	1	1	2	.319
Kearns cf	3	2	0	0	2	2	.294
ABoone 3b	3	0	1	0	1	1	.273
JGuillen rf	4	1	2	3	0	0	.313
Freel 2b	1	0	0	0	1	0	.150
Reith p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
WPena ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.071
Mercker p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Riedling p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.333
RMateo ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.167
Stinnett c	3	1	2	1	0	0	.344
PWilson p	1	0	0	0	0	0	.000
JCastro 2b	3	1	2	0	0	0	.308
Totals	32	6	9	6	6	8

San Francisco	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Durham 2b	3	1	1	0	2	1	.322
Aurilia ss	5	0	0	0	0	1	.230
Worrell p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Bonds lf	4	2	2	0	0	0	.295
Benard lf	0	0	0	0	0	0	.087
JoCruz rf	3	2	2	3	1	0	.324
Galarraga 1b	4	2	2	3	0	0	.379
Alfonzo 3b	4	1	1	1	0	0	.196
Torrealba c	4	1	2	2	0	0	.294
RRivera cf	4	0	1	0	0	0	.161
Foppert p	3	0	0	0	0	1	.000
Nathan p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
b-Feliz ph	1	0	0	0	0	1	.217
Eyre p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
NPerez ss	0	0	0	0	0	0	.210
Totals	35	9	11	9	3	4

Cincinnati	010	003	002	-6	9	1
San Francisco	403	200	00x	-9	11	0

E-ABoone (3). LOB-Cincinnati 7, San Francisco 5. 2B-JGuillen (3), Bonds (4), JoCruz (7), Alfonzo (2). 3B-JoCruz (1). HR-JGuillen (6), off Foppert; Torrealba (1), off PWilson; Galarraga (2), off PWilson. RBIs-Dunn (19), Casey (17), JGuillen 3 (16), Stinnett (4), JoCruz 3 (20), Galarraga 3 (10), Alfonzo (9), Torrealba 2 (8). DP-San Francisco 1 (JoCruz, Galarraga and Aurilia).

Cincinnati	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
PWilson L, 1-3	3 2/3	9	9	8	3	2	79	5.19
Reith	1 1/3	0	0	0	0	1	21	4.05
Mercker	2	0	0	0	0	0	16	1.93
Riedling	1	2	0	0	0	1	13	5.09

San Francisco	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Foppert W, 1-2	5 1/3	3	4	4	6	6	107	5.89
Nathan	2 2/3	2	0	0	0	2	40	0.00
Eyre	2/3	4	2	2	0	0	19	4.63
Worrell S, 8	1/3	0	0	0	0	0	3	2.25

T-2:40. A-40,077 (41,503).