By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer

PHOTO GALLERY

Photos of Friday's game

Sean Casey is not the fastest guy on the Reds. But he was the first to the scene of the crime Friday night.

To Casey, it was a crime when Carlos Silva took a swing at Adam Dunn while Dunn was lying on the turf during a scuffle with the Philadelphia Phillies in Cincinnati's 15-1 victory at Great American Ball Park.

"He winds up and takes a big swing at Dunner," Sean Casey said. "That angered me so much. Then it's not baseball; it's protecting your friends."

Casey led the protection brigade in a bench-clearing brawl that spiced up an already eventful Friday the 13th.

There were offensive fireworks - 22 hits, the Reds' most since June 1999.

There was Jimmy Haynes pitching his best game of the year - a complete-game three-hitter.

But the brawl was what the 30,144 in attendance will remember.

The melee came in the sixth. Jason LaRue put the Reds ahead 12-0 with a two-run homer one out into the inning. Two batters later, Silva nearly hit Dunn with a pitch.

A bit of background: Dunn had bulled over Phillies catcher Mike Lieberthal while trying to score an inning earlier.

"That had to be it," Dunn said. "After the first pitch, I figured something was up."

So when Silva threw the next pitch behind Dunn, the Reds left fielder took a step toward the mound, then charged - or tried to. Lieberthal stopped him with a shoestring tackle. Then Silva threw the sucker punch, and the fight was on.

The Reds, led by Casey, swarmed the mound. There was a lot of pushing and shoving, and a few pitches were thrown.

"It got pretty crazy out there," Casey said. "Todd Pratt took me out like an NFL linebacker."

Casey and Dunn were ejected. On the Phillies' side, Silva, pitcher Jose Mesa and manager Larry Bowa were tossed.

"I'm not too happy about it," Reds manager Bob Boone said of the melee. "I'm disappointed because of the ramifications."

Dunn and Casey could be suspended, but they had no regrets.

"I'd do it again," Casey said.

Said Dunn: "That's the great thing about this team. When something like this happens, you know 24 guys have got your back."

Bowa didn't criticize Dunn's aggressive play, but pitcher Kevin Millwood did.

"I didn't like it," Millwood said. "In a close game, you do that. When it's 10-0, you stop or give him a courtesy slide."

Before the riot, the game was a rout.

The Reds knocked out Millwood, who came in 8-3 with a 3.05 ERA, in the fourth inning. He allowed eight runs on 11 hits.

Haynes (1-5) allowed a single off the glove of third baseman Aaron Boone in the second, then retired 18 of the next 19 batters he faced before allowing a home run to Marlon Byrd with two outs in the eighth.

Haynes broke a five-game losing streak and pitched his first complete game since May 18, 1998.

Seven of the Reds' nine starters had at least two hits. Casey was 4-for-4, Boone was 3-for-3 with two doubles and LaRue homered twice and drove in five runs. Austin Kearns was 3-for-5 with two doubles, and Dunn hit his 21st homer of the season to break an 0-for-18 skid and tie Toronto's Carlos Delgado for the major-league lead. Barry Larkin, in the lineup for the first time in three weeks, had two hits.

Philadelphia	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
BAbreu rf	4	0	0	0	0	0	.274
Rollins ss	4	0	0	0	0	0	.258
Thome 1b	3	0	1	0	1	0	.248
Lieberthal c	4	0	0	0	0	2	.316
Ledee lf	4	0	0	0	0	1	.230
Polanco 2b	3	0	0	0	0	0	.247
DaBell 3b	1	0	1	0	1	0	.206
Punto ph-3b	1	0	0	0	0	0	.158
Byrd cf	3	0	0	0	0	0	.265
Millwood p	1	0	0	0	0	1	.034
CSilva p	1	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Mercado p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Michaels ph	1	1	1	1	0	0	.317
Plesac p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Totals	30	1	3	1	2	4

Cincinnati	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Dunn lf	2	2	1	1	1	0	.202
WPena ph-lf	1	0	0	0	1	1	.097
Larkin ss	4	2	2	1	0	1	.276
Olmedo ss	2	0	1	0	0	0	.273
Griffey Jr. cf	4	1	2	2	0	1	.273
Taylor pr-cf	2	0	0	0	0	1	.225
Kearns rf	5	3	3	1	0	1	.295
ABoone 3b	3	1	3	4	0	0	.280
Branyan ph-1b	2	0	0	0	0	1	.158
Casey 1b	4	1	4	1	0	0	.294
FLopez 3b	1	1	1	0	0	0	.214
LaRue c	4	2	2	5	0	1	.255
JCastro 2b	5	1	1	0	0	2	.265
JHaynes p	4	1	2	0	0	0	.364
Totals	43	15	22	15	2	9

Philadelphia	000	000	010	-1	3	0
Cincinnati	013	512	30x	-15	22	0

LOB-Philadelphia 4, Cincinnati 9. 2B-Thome (9), Larkin (4), Kearns 2 (10), ABoone 2 (13). HR-Michaels (2), off JHaynes; LaRue 2 (10), off Mercado, CSilva; Dunn (21), off Millwood. RBIs-Michaels (6), Dunn (44), Larkin (5), Griffey Jr. 2 (14), Kearns (56), ABoone 4 (43), Casey (30), LaRue 5 (26). SB-ABoone (11), Casey (3). S-JHaynes.

Philadelphia	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Millwood L, 8-4	3 1/3	11	8	8	0	4	63	3.72
CSilva	2 1/3	7	4	4	2	2	56	4.74
Mercado	1 1/3	3	3	3	0	1	31	5.93
Plesac	1	1	0	0	0	2	11	3.27

Cincinnati	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
JHaynes W, 1-5	9	3	1	1	2	4	110	7.27

HBP-by CSilva (LaRue), by Millwood (Dunn). WP-CSilva 2. Umpires-Home, Doug Eddings; First, Ron Kulpa; Second, Mike Winters; Third, Bruce Froemming. T-2:43. A-30,144.