By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer

PHOTO GALLERY

Photos of Sunday's game

The Reds' season is taking on the Groundhog Day feel. Another day, another loss, another chance to blame the starting pitching.

The Houston Astros completed their second four-game sweep of the Reds in two weeks with a 6-3 victory Sunday before 32,062 home fans.

Danny Graves, a closer-turned-starter, went 6  1/3 innings, allowing five runs on eight hits in the loss.

The Reds have lost four in a row and 10 straight to the Astros. The skid puts the Reds at 43-54, 11 games under .500 and 10  1/2 games behind the Astros. Both are season highs. The loss also drops Cincinnati to fifth place behind the Pittsburgh Pirates, and with 65 games remaining, hopes of a division title are all but gone.

"It's easy to roll over," Aaron Boone said.

The question of whether the Reds have the character to avoid that remains unanswered.

"We've dug ourselves out of holes in tough times before," Boone said. "We'll find out."

With scoring deficits of 5-1, 5-1, 6-0 and 4-0 in the four games, it seems as though the Reds have done nothing but dig themselves out of holes.

"You look at the stat sheet, and every day our pitching, particularly our starting pitching, is at the bottom," Reds manager Bob Boone said. "If you don't pitch well, you don't win."

Graves, a 29-year-old right-hander, was converted to a starter to ease the problem late last year. But Graves, who was 33-21 with a 3.32 ERA in six seasons as a reliever, has struggled since the change. He is 4-10 with 5.59 ERA as a starter this year.

Boone doesn't think the switch to the rotation is the root of Graves' struggles.

"His velocity is down," Boone said. "With the velocity, he wouldn't be (successful) on the back end (of the bullpen)."

Houston's Jeff Bagwell, who lit up Graves for a pair of home runs Sunday, said the Reds are dealing with a chicken-and-egg dilemma in terms of Graves' velocity and his struggles as a starter.

"With any reliever, when they start, their velocity is going to go down," Bagwell said. "Danny was throwing 94. Look at (Chris) Reitsma. He's throwing 94, 95. He was 89, 92 when he was starting. They've switched off.

"It's a little different as a starter. You have to pitch through the lineup. You face guys three or four times. Danny is still learning that. He'll be OK."

Boone said Graves hasn't shown his good sinkerball. Graves said the sinker was there, but the Astros adjusted to it.

The two Bagwell home runs were the 23rd and 24th Graves has allowed this year, second most in the National League. Last year, Graves gave up a home run every 14 innings. This year, he's giving up one every five innings.

The Reds' struggles against the Astros goes well beyond this season.

The Reds are 8-28 against Houston since June 2001. In that span, Astros starters are 24-3 with a 3.33 ERA. Reds starters are 4-22 with a 6.68 ERA.

"You look up every game and their starters are throwing harder than ours," Boone said.

Houston starter Wade Miller struck out nine Reds batters to Graves' one.

All the damage against Miller came on Aaron Boone's three-run homer in the sixth inning.

Houston	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Biggio cf	4	1	1	0	0	0	.275
Ensberg 3b	4	1	1	0	0	0	.309
Bagwell 1b	3	2	2	4	0	1	.277
JKent 2b	4	1	2	1	0	0	.310
Berkman lf	3	1	1	0	1	0	.282
Hidalgo rf	3	0	0	0	0	1	.330
Ausmus c	4	0	1	0	0	0	.202
Bruntlett ss	4	0	1	1	0	1	.273
WMiller p	2	0	0	0	0	1	.139
Gallo p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Merced ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.250
Stone p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Lidge p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Wagner p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Totals	32	6	9	6	1	4

Cincinnati	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
DJimenez 2b	4	0	1	0	0	1	.333
Taylor cf	4	0	0	0	0	3	.216
JGuillen rf	4	1	1	0	0	1	.333
Casey 1b	2	1	2	0	2	0	.304
ABoone 3b	3	1	1	3	1	0	.266
Dunn lf	3	0	0	0	0	1	.201
Reitsma p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.125
Branyan ph	1	0	0	0	0	1	.220
Williamson p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
LaRue c	4	0	0	0	0	2	.236
JCastro ss	3	0	0	0	0	1	.235
Larkin ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.274
Graves p	2	0	0	0	0	1	.122
RMateo lf	2	0	0	0	0	1	.228
Totals	33	3	5	3	3	12

Houston	100	201	101	-6	9	1
Cincinnati	000	003	000	-3	5	0

E-JKent (7). LOB-Houston 2, Cincinnati 6. 2B-Biggio (29), Berkman (17). HR-JKent (12), off Williamson; ABoone (18), off WMiller; Bagwell 2 (20), off Graves 2. RBIs-Bagwell 4 (54), JKent (51), Bruntlett (3), ABoone 3 (61). SB-ABoone (13). SF-Bagwell. GIDP-Berkman, Merced.

Runners left in scoring position-Houston 1 (Bruntlett); Cincinnati 3 (LaRue 3).

Runners moved up-Ensberg, Ausmus.

DP-Cincinnati 2 (DJimenez, JCastro and Casey), (DJimenez, JCastro and Casey).

Houston	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
WMiller W, 7-9	5 1/3	3	3	2	3	9	111	4.60
Gallo H, 3	2/3	0	0	0	0	0	10	0.00
Stone H, 5	1	1	0	0	0	0	18	3.44
Lidge H, 16	1	1	0	0	0	1	9	2.37
Wagner S, 28	1	0	0	0	0	2	13	2.14

Cincinnati	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Graves L, 4-10	6 1/3	8	5	5	0	1	66	5.59
Reitsma	1 2/3	0	0	0	0	1	17	4.25
Williamson	1	1	1	1	1	2	20	3.43

Inherited runners-scored-Reitsma 2-0.

HBP-by Graves (Hidalgo). WP-Williamson.

T-2:37. A-32,062 (42,263).

How the runs scored in Sunday's game between the Astros and the Reds

Astros first. Biggio doubled to left. Ensberg grounded out, second baseman Jimenez to first baseman Casey, Biggio to third. Bagwell hit a sacrifice fly to left fielder Dunn, Biggio scored. Kent lined out to center fielder Taylor. 1 run, 1 hit, 0 errors, 0 left on. Astros 1, Reds 0.

Astros fourth. Ensberg infield single to third. Bagwell homered to left on the first pitch, Ensberg scored. Kent singled to center. Berkman grounded into a double play, second baseman Jimenez to shortstop Castro to first baseman Casey, Kent out. Hidalgo flied out to left fielder Dunn. 2 runs, 3 hits, 0 errors, 0 left on. Astros 3, Reds 0.

Astros sixth. Biggio lined out to shortstop Castro. Ensberg grounded out, third baseman Boone to first baseman Casey. Bagwell homered to center on a 2-1 count. Kent flied out to right fielder Guillen. 1 run, 1 hit, 0 errors, 0 left on. Astros 4, Reds 0.

Reds sixth. Taylor struck out. Guillen safe on Kent's error. Casey singled to center, Guillen to third. Boone homered to left on a full count, Guillen scored, Casey scored. Gallo pitching. Dunn popped out to second baseman Kent. LaRue popped out to right fielder Hidalgo. 3 runs, 2 hits, 1 error, 0 left on. Astros 4, Reds 3.

Astros seventh. Berkman doubled to center. Hidalgo was hit by a pitch. Ausmus popped out to first baseman Casey. Bruntlett singled to center, Berkman scored, Hidalgo to third. Merced pinch-hitting for Gallo. Reitsma pitching. Mateo in as left fielder. Merced grounded into a double play, second baseman Jimenez to shortstop Castro to first baseman Casey, Bruntlett out. 1 run, 2 hits, 0 errors, 1 left on. Astros 5, Reds 3.

Astros ninth. Williamson pitching. Kent homered to left on the first pitch. Berkman walked on four pitches. On Williamson's wild pitch, Berkman to second. Hidalgo struck out. Ausmus grounded out, shortstop Castro to first baseman Casey, Berkman to third. Bruntlett struck out. 1 run, 1 hit, 0 errors, 1 left on. Astros 6, Reds 3.