By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer

PHOTO GALLERY

Photos of Saturday's game

The Reds and Philadelphia Phillies played a nice tight, pitching duel of a ballgame Saturday night.

Right up until the 10-run eighth by the Phillies, that is.

"It was a heck of a game until the dam broke," Reds manager Bob Boone.

The broken dam, which followed a 29-minute rain delay, led to a 12-2 blowout before a crowd of 35,398 at Great American Ball Park. The loss snapped the Reds' four-game win streak.

In the wake of Friday's 15-1 slugfest, three hitters were hit by pitches - two for the Reds (Jose Guillen twice) and one for the Phillies - but there were no incidents or warnings.

Gabe White, the Reds' best relief pitcher, allowed six straight run-scoring hits in the eighth.

"It happens," White said. "It wasn't the first time, and it won't be the last. But it's not fun. You want to try to forget about it as soon as possible."

Danny Graves returned to the rotation after missing a start with a blister on his middle finger. Graves overcame some early rough patches to go five quality innings.

He allowed two runs on six hits. He was pulled because he was at 81 pitches, his pitch count was 90 and the blister began to surface.

"It was fine," Graves said. "It didn't hurt at all. I was upset (to come out). I don't want people to think I jump ship because of a little blister."

Graves said he realized caution was the best course.

"I pleaded with them to let me stay in," he said. "But he's the manager. He makes the decisions. It was probably the right thing to do."

The problem was the Reds couldn't muster any offense to support him. The night after pounding 15 runs on 22 hits, they managed only two hits before the ninth.

Phillies left-hander Randy Wolf allowed a leadoff home run to Adam Dunn, then did not allow a runner past second base after that. He retired 16 of the last 18 batters he faced.

"Wolf was dealing," Graves said. "He was awesome."

Dunn gave the Reds the lead in the first with his second home run in as many nights. It went to the smoke stacks in right-center field - a shot of 464 feet. Dunn continues in the homer-or-nothing mode: 13 of his last 18 hits have been home runs.

Graves, making his first start in nine days, was not sharp early. He left the bases loaded in the first.

Jimmy Rollins doubled and Jason Michaels singled to start the second for the Phillies. Rollins scored when Wolf hit into a double play. Bobby Abreu made it 2-1 with a line-drive home run.

Graves settled in from there. He worked a 1-2-3 third, worked out of a mini-jam in the fourth and worked a 1-2-3 fifth.

"I was searching for my release point the whole night," Graves said. "I finally found it in the fifth."

It was the third straight good start for the Reds. The starters have a 1.27 ERA in the three games of the homestand.

Felix Heredia followed Graves and pitched two perfect innings.

Scott Sullivan took over and got in trouble immediately. He walked Pat Burrell. Mike Lieberthal followed with a single off the wall.

Moeller High product David Bell got in a run with a sacrifice fly to right. After Rollins singled, Sullivan hit Michaels to load the bases.

Sullivan was replaced by White, who threw one pitch before the game was halted because of rain.

"That's never any fun," White said. "But that didn't have anything to do with what happened."

PHILA					CINCINNATI
	ab	r	h	bi		ab	r	h	bi
BAbreu rf	5	2	2	3	Dunn lf	4	1	1	1
Planco 2b	5	1	2	2	Larkin ss	4	0	0	0
Thome 1b	4	1	1	1	JGillen rf	2	1	1	0
Burrell lf	3	0	0	0	Kearns cf	4	0	1	0
Byrd cf	1	2	1	0	ABoone 3b	4	0	1	0
Lbrthal c	4	2	2	1	Casey 1b	4	0	0	1
DaBell 3b	4	1	1	4	LaRue c	4	0	1	0
Crmier p	0	0	0	0	JCastro 2b	3	0	0	0
Adams p	0	0	0	0	Graves p	1	0	0	0
Rollins ss	5	2	3	0	WPena ph	1	0	0	0
Mchels cf	4	1	2	0	Hredia p	0	0	0	0
Wolf p	2	0	0	0	Sllivan p	0	0	0	0
ToPerz 3b	2	0	0	0	GWhite p	0	0	0	0
					FLopez ph	1	0	0	0
					Ritsma p	0	0	0	0
Totals	39	12	14	11	Totals	32	2	5	2

Philadelphia	020	000	0(10)0-12
Cincinnati	100	000	001-2

E-Burrell (4), JGuillen (7). DP-Cincinnati 1. LOB-Philadelphia 7, Cincinnati 5. 2B-Polanco 2 (16), Rollins (17), LaRue (13). HR-BAbreu (10), DaBell (3), Dunn (22). S-Wolf. SF-DaBell.

	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
Philadelphia
Wolf W,8-3	7	2	1	1	0	7
Cormier	1	0	0	0	0	1
Adams	1	3	1	1	0	1
Cincinnati
Graves L,3-6	5	6	2	2	2	0
Heredia	2	0	0	0	0	0
Sullivan	1-3	2	4	4	1	0
GWhite	2-3	6	6	6	0	1
Reitsma	1	0	0	0	0	0

HBP-by Sullivan (Michaels), by Wolf (JGuillen 2), by Graves (Lieberthal).

Umpires-Home, Ron Kulpa; First, Mike Winters; Second, Bruce Froemming; Third, Doug Eddings.

T-2:40. A-35,398 (42,263).