By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer

PHOTO GALLERY

Photos of Tuesday's game

A win is a win is a win. Keep telling yourself that, Reds fan.

And the Reds got one Tuesday night - 9-8 over the Atlanta Braves - albeit in a topsy-turvy, up-and-down sort of way.

Jason LaRue's two-run homer in the eighth was the game-winner.

It came after the Reds blew 5-0 and 7-2 leads. Leads built on four-time Cy Young winner Greg Maddux. Leads that, when lost, had the 24,076 at Great American Ball Park booing.

But they were cheering at the end as the Reds won for the seventh time in eight games at Great American.

Austin Kearns drove in four runs on his 23rd birthday.

Scott Sullivan, who pitched one-third of an inning and gave up a three-run, game-tying homer, got the win.

Scott Williamson gave up a home run but got through the ninth for his 11th save. The game ended with runners at first and third when Williamson struck out Andruw Jones.

Give Juan Castro an assist. He made a brilliant play to rob Julio Franco of a hit for the first out of the ninth just before Rafael Furcal's home run.

Starter Danny Graves went 7 1/3 innings, allowing six runs on seven hits, and left with a 7-3 lead.

Maddux came in with a 3-5 record and a 4.85 ERA but had been pitching more like himself recently. He was 3-2 with a 2.82 ERA over his last seven starts.

The Reds wasted no time jumping on him. Leadoff man Felipe Lopez lined the first pitch he saw past third for a double, and Sean Casey followed with a walk. They moved up on a wild pitch with Ken Griffey Jr. at the plate, but Griffey struck out swinging on a 3-2 pitch. Kearns rocketed a 2-1 pitch into left for a two-run single, extending his career-high hit streak to 14 games.

Maddux met with more trouble in the second, when LaRue led off with a double into the right-field gap. An out later, Graves singled up the middle, then Lopez got LaRue home with a single. Casey dropped a single in front of center fielder Jones to load the bases.

That brought up Griffey. Again, he worked the count full. And, again, he struck out swinging.

Kearns went the other way this time, grounding one past the second baseman for a two-run single. That made it 5-0. It also gave Kearns 41 RBI. Kearns is hitting .383 with runners in scoring position.

The Braves ended Graves' string of scoreless innings at 11 with a run in the third.

They added a run in the fourth to make it 5-2 as Jones hit his 11th home run of the year. It landed in the left-field bleachers - only the second ball hit there at Great American. (Milwaukee's Richie Sexson did it May 10.)

The third battle of Maddux vs. Griffey, Griffey won. He crushed a 2-1 pitch that cleared the bullpen in right for a two-run homer. It was Griffey's second of the year, and the lead was back to five.

It was the 14th consecutive game the Reds have homered. They've had longer streaks only twice in their history - 17 games in 1955 and 21 games in 1956. They also homered in 14 straight in 1953.

---

E-mail jfay@enquirer.com

Atlanta	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Furcal ss	5	1	2	2	0	0	.339
MGiles 2b	1	0	0	0	0	0	.336
DeRosa 2b	2	1	1	0	1	0	.176
Sheffield rf	5	0	1	0	0	1	.355
CJones lf	5	1	1	0	0	1	.293
AJones cf	4	1	1	1	1	1	.286
Fick 1b	4	1	0	1	0	0	.296
Castilla 3b	4	2	2	4	0	0	.283
Blanco c	4	1	1	0	0	1	.233
Maddux p	1	0	0	0	0	0	.095
Bragg ph	1	0	1	0	0	0	.140
Hodges p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
MFranco ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.286
Bong p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
RHernandez p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
JuFranco ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.288
Totals	38	8	10	8	2	4

Cincinnati	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
FLopez ss	4	2	2	1	0	1	.237
Casey 1b	2	2	2	0	2	0	.310
Griffey Jr. cf	4	1	1	2	0	2	.243
Kearns rf	4	0	2	4	0	1	.306
ABoone 3b	3	1	0	0	1	1	.273
Dunn lf	4	0	0	0	0	3	.231
LaRue c	4	2	2	2	0	2	.255
JCastro 2b	4	0	0	0	0	1	.253
Graves p	3	1	1	0	0	1	.136
Mercker p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Sullivan p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Taylor ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.250
Williamson p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Totals	33	9	10	9	3	12

Atlanta	001	100	141	-8	10	0
Cincinnati	230	200	02x	-9	10	1

E-FLopez (14). LOB-Atlanta 6, Cincinnati 3. 2B-Furcal (9), Blanco (3), FLopez (7), LaRue (9). HR-Furcal (6), off Williamson; LaRue (5), off RHernandez; Castilla 2 (8), off Sullivan, Graves; Griffey Jr. (2), off Maddux; AJones (11), off Graves. RBIs-Furcal 2 (17), AJones (41), Fick (19), Castilla 4 (24), FLopez (11), Griffey Jr. 2 (4), Kearns 4 (41), LaRue 2 (14). SB-Kearns (1). GIDP-Kearns.

Atlanta	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Maddux	4	9	7	7	1	7	79	5.54
Hodges	2	0	0	0	0	4	27	2.53
Bong	1	0	0	0	1	0	13	2.45
RHernandez L, 3-1	1	1	2	2	1	1	22	3.86

Cincinnati	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Graves	7 1/3	7	6	6	1	1	103	4.91
Mercker H, 6	1/3	0	0	0	0	0	3	1.72
Sullivan W, 5-0 BS, 1	1/3	1	1	1	0	1	6	5.11
Williamson S, 11	1	2	1	1	1	2	25	3.72

Inherited runners-scored-Mercker 3-1, Sullivan 2-2.

HBP-by Graves (DeRosa). WP-Maddux.

Umpires-Home, Bill Welke; First, Kerwin Danley; Second, John Hirschbeck; Third, Matt Hollowell.

T-2:47. A-24,076 (42,263).