By Bill Koch
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Juan Castro is doubled up off first as St. Louis' Tino Martinez takes the throw. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

Throughout what has become a miserable inaugural season for the Reds at Great American Ball Park, they've been able to point to a few successes.

One of them is their dominance of the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Reds entered Saturday night's game with an 8-3 record this year against the National League Central Division co-leaders, including five straight wins in their new ballpark.

Thanks to Cardinals center fielder Jim Edmonds, that mastery came to a halt with a 6-3 St. Louis win before a sellout crowd of 39,380 fans, many of whom were rooting for the Cardinals.

The sellout was the 11th of the season for the Reds and included 6,457 walk-up tickets.

Edmonds hit a two-run home run, a double and drove in four runs in the first three innings off Reds starter Aaron Harang.

But it was his amazing catch of Russell Branyan's fly ball in the third inning that had the crowd buzzing with appreciation and left the Reds shaking their heads in amazement.

"You've got to tip your hat," said Reds manager Dave Miley. "He's been doing it a long time."

Branyan knew he was in trouble as soon as he saw Edmonds start to slow down as he neared the center field fence.

That meant that Edmonds had a bead on Branyan's towering drive that, at first glance, appeared to be a two-run homer but was apparently held up by a slight breeze.

"When he slowed up and looked at it, it was like a plane getting ready to land," Branyan said. "He was just kind of judging the distance, just getting ready to do his thing."

Cardinals center fielder Jim Edmonds leaps to catch a ball hit by Russell Branyan. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

Sure enough, Edmonds braced his foot against the fence as he jumped, reached over the fence and plucked the ball out of the air with his gloved hand.

He held the ball aloft in his bare left hand while the crowd cheered as he ran toward the dugout having secured the third out of the inning.

"I thought the ball was going to hit off the black (batter's eye)," Edmonds said. "I was cruising back and it was dying. I got lucky."

It was the second straight night that the Cards' Gold Glove winner robbed the Reds of a home run, but this one was clearly more impressive.

Harang, who was so strong in his first three starts with the Reds, allowed four earned runs on eight hits in six innings.

This came on the heels of allowing six runs in five innings in last outing against the Milwaukee Brewers.

He, too, was done in by Edmonds.

"He put the big blows on me," Harang said. "There's nothing you can do when a guy's locked in like that."

Miley was encouraged by the Reds' 12 hits, even though they left 10 runners on base.

"I think the last two nights we swung the bats as well as we have since I've been here," he said.

The problem was they hit the ball too often in Edmonds' direction.

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E-mail bkoch@enquirer.com

St. Louis	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Vina 2b	5	1	1	0	0	0	.260
Robinson rf	4	0	0	0	0	1	.266
Kline p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.500
DeJean p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Isringhausen p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.500
Pujols lf	4	2	2	0	0	1	.367
Edmonds cf	4	2	2	4	0	2	.284
Rolen 3b	4	0	0	0	0	0	.291
TMartinez 1b	3	0	2	0	1	0	.281
Renteria ss	4	1	2	1	0	0	.336
Matheny c	3	0	0	0	1	0	.242
Tomko p	1	0	0	0	0	0	.260
Simontacchi p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.143
Taguchi ph-rf	2	0	1	0	0	0	.412
Totals	34	6	10	5	2	4

Cincinnati	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Freel cf	5	1	2	0	0	0	.288
JCastro ss	4	0	1	0	1	1	.257
DJimenez 2b	5	0	2	1	0	0	.311
Casey 1b	4	1	2	0	1	0	.289
Branyan 3b	4	1	1	0	0	1	.224
Smitherman lf	4	0	1	1	0	1	.294
Stenson rf	3	0	2	1	1	0	.297
Stinnett c	4	0	0	0	0	3	.229
Harang p	2	0	0	0	0	1	.083
Hummel ph	1	0	1	0	0	0	.364
PNorton p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Randall p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Olmedo ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.264
Reith p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Totals	37	3	12	3	3	7

St. Louis	203	000	001	-6	10	0
Cincinnati	021	000	000	-3	12	1

E-Stinnett (2). LOB-St. Louis 4, Cincinnati 10. 2B-Edmonds (31), Taguchi (3), Freel (3), Branyan (6), Hummel (2). HR-Renteria (13), off Reith; Edmonds (34), off Harang. RBIs-Edmonds 4 (82), Renteria (81), DJimenez (17), Smitherman (4), Stenson (5). SB-Pujols (3). S-Tomko. GIDP-Renteria, Olmedo.

Runners left in scoring position-St. Louis 3 (Vina, Robinson, Renteria); Cincinnati 4 (Freel 2, Branyan, Smitherman).

Runners moved up-Robinson, JCastro, DJimenez.

DP-St. Louis 2 (Edmonds, Renteria and TMartinez), (Vina, Renteria and TMartinez); Cincinnati 2 (DJimenez and JCastro), (Branyan, DJimenez and Casey).

St. Louis	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Tomko W, 11-8	5 2/3	9	3	3	2	4	89	5.45
Simontacchi H, 5	1/3	0	0	0	0	0	2	5.84
Kline H, 14	2/3	2	0	0	0	1	15	4.25
DeJean H, 6	1 1/3	0	0	0	1	1	21	4.86
Isrnghsen S, 16	1	1	0	0	0	1	20	2.20

Cincinnati	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Harang L, 3-2	6	8	5	4	2	2	92	4.50
PNorton	1	0	0	0	0	0	10	9.64
Randall	1	0	0	0	0	2	13	0.00
Reith	1	2	1	1	0	0	18	4.81

Inherited runners-scored-DeJean 2-0, Simontacchi 2-0.

Umpires-Home, Mike Everitt; First, Jim Wolf; Second, Scott Nelson; Third, Larry Young.

T-2:40. A-39,380 (42,263).