By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer

PHOTO GALLERY

Photos of Friday's game

NEW YORK - If there was a team in baseball struggling worse than the Reds, it was the New York Mets.

The Mets, who had lost 12 of 15 coming into Friday night, found the perfect tonic for the Summertime Baseball Blues: Playing the Reds.

The Mets and Al Leiter beat the Reds 3-1 before a crowd of 34,021 at Shea Stadium.

Danny Graves (4-11) lost for the ninth time in 10 decisions, despite his best and longest outing since May 14. Graves went eight innings, allowing three runs on 11 hits. With better defense, he might have fared better."We gave them all three runs," Reds manager Bob Boone said.

All three runs were earned. But an error contributed to one and the two others would not have scored had the Reds made very good plays, not great plays.

Adam Dunn, the left fielder who was playing first base, made the error. Brandon Larson, the third baseman who was playing left field, made, or didn't make, one of the other plays.

Graves didn't want to talk about the good outing.

"I don't know what to say," he said. "Everyone's frustrated. Everyone's tired of losing."

The Reds have lost eight of nine since the All-Star break and are 8-23 since June 19.

They've lost four straight to the Mets - one of the three teams in the National League with a record worse than theirs.

Leiter pitched seven shutout innings, despite allowing six hits, walking two and hitting a batter.

"We had Leiter in trouble all night," Boone said. "We couldn't get a good swing when we needed it."

It was the best outing of the year for Leiter, who was making his second start since spending three weeks on the disabled list with an inflamed right knee.

Jose Guillen's 21st home run to lead off the eighth accounted for the Reds' only run.

The Mets broke a scoreless tie with a gift run in the fourth.

Jose Reyes reached on a bunt single. Dunn fielded the ball but no one could get to first in time to get the speedy Reyes. With Graves, the Reds' best fielding pitcher on the mound, Boone wanted Dunn to cover the bag.

"That's Danny's ball tonight," Boone said. "Tomorrow night, it's Dunn's ball. But when Reyes puts it there, you're not going to get him."

Reyes was running when Jason Phillips hit a groundball to third baseman Aaron Boone. Boone fielded it and threw to Dunn.

When Reyes broke for third, Dunn threw to Boone - or at least tried to. His throw, as Bob Uecker might say, was high and a bit outside. It went into the stands and Reyes scored.

Good play by Reyes, bad play by Dunn.

"Dunn wasn't sleeping," Boone said. "Reyes never broke stride. Dunn just made a bad throw. He wasn't going to get him (at third)."

The run ended up being an earned one because Roger Cedeno singled one out later.

The Mets added a run in the seventh. Defense played a part in that one, too. Ty Wigginton singled. Vance Wilson followed with a liner to right that Guillen charged and had go off his glove. It was ruled a triple because of the weird hop the ball took, but it looked like a ball Guillen should have fielded cleanly. Wilson, by the way, broke an 0-for-28 skid with the hit.

Guillen's homer, a towering shot to left, came off Dan Wheeler. Guillen was the first and only batter Wheeler faced.

The Mets got the run back in their half of the eighth. Reyes hit a low liner that left fielder Brandon Larson tried to make a diving catch on. The ball got through Larson for a triple. Reyes scored on Phillips' single.

"Danny was pitching a hell of a game," Larson said. "I've got to try to make that play for him. I'd do it 10 times over."

Cincinnati	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
DJimenez 2b	3	0	2	0	1	1	.354
JCastro ss	3	0	0	0	1	0	.238
JGuillen rf	3	1	1	1	0	0	.342
Dunn 1b	4	0	0	0	0	1	.201
ABoone 3b	3	0	0	0	0	2	.269
RMateo cf	4	0	0	0	0	1	.216
Larson lf	4	0	2	0	0	0	.103
LaRue c	4	0	1	0	0	2	.234
Graves p	3	0	1	0	0	0	.136
b-Larkin ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.271
Totals	32	1	7	1	2	7

New York	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Duncan cf	4	0	1	0	0	0	.341
Reyes ss	4	2	3	0	0	0	.281
JPhillips 1b	4	0	1	1	0	0	.324
Floyd lf	3	0	0	0	0	0	.272
RGonzalez lf-rf	1	0	0	0	0	0	.256
Cedeno rf	4	0	3	0	0	0	.250
RSanchez 2b	0	0	0	0	0	0	.207
Wigginton 3b	4	1	1	0	0	0	.268
VWilson c	3	0	1	1	0	0	.256
McEwing 2b-lf	3	0	1	0	0	0	.240
Leiter p	2	0	0	0	0	1	.000
a-TPerez ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.283
Wheeler p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Stanton p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Totals	33	3	11	2	0	1

Cincinnati	000	000	010	-1	7	1
New York	000	100	11x	-3	11	1

ABoone reached first on catcher's interference.

a-flied out for Leiter in the 7th. b-flied out for Graves in the 9th.

E-Dunn (10), VWilson (2). LOB-Cincinnati 8, New York 6. 2B-McEwing (8). 3B-Reyes (3), VWilson (1). HR-JGuillen (21), off Wheeler. RBIs-JGuillen (58), JPhillips (30), VWilson (33). SB-DJimenez (3). CS-DJimenez (2), Larson (2). GIDP-Wigginton.

DP-Cincinnati 2 (Dunn), (ABoone, DJimenez and Dunn).

Cincinnati	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Graves L, 4-11	8	11	3	3	0	1	124	5.45

New York	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Leiter W, 9-5	7	6	0	0	2	5	104	5.12
Wheeler	0	1	1	1	0	0	2	2.42
Stanton S, 1	2	0	0	0	0	2	25	5.06

T-2:36. A-34,021

How the runs scored in Friday's game between the Reds and the Mets

Mets fourth. Reyes bunt single to first. Phillips grounded out, third baseman Boone to first baseman Dunn, Reyes to third. On Dunn's error, Reyes scored. Floyd popped out to second baseman Jimenez. Cedeno singled to center. Wigginton flied out to center fielder Mateo. 1 run, 2 hits, 1 error, 1 left on. Mets 1, Reds 0.

Mets seventh. Cedeno grounded out, first baseman Dunn unassisted. Wigginton singled to center. Wilson tripled to right, Wigginton scored. McEwing grounded out, shortstop Castro to first baseman Dunn. Perez pinch-hitting for Leiter. Perez flied out to center fielder Mateo. 1 run, 2 hits, 0 errors, 1 left on. Mets 2, Reds 0.

Reds eighth. Wheeler pitching. Guillen homered to left on a 0-1 count. Stanton pitching. Dunn flied out to left fielder Gonzalez. Boone struck out. Mateo flied out to right fielder Cedeno. 1 run, 1 hit, 0 errors, 0 left on. Mets 2, Reds 1.

Mets eighth. Duncan grounded out, second baseman Jimenez to first baseman Dunn. Reyes tripled to left. Phillips singled to center, Reyes scored. Gonzalez grounded into fielder's choice, third baseman Boone to second baseman Jimenez, Phillips out. Cedeno singled to center, Gonzalez to third. Wigginton lined out to center fielder Mateo. 1 run, 3 hits, 0 errors, 2 left on. Mets 3, Reds 1.