By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer

PITTSBURGH - If the Reds' weekend at Wrigley Field was an example of what September baseball is like when something is at stake, then the four-game series that opened Monday night at PNC Park was example of September baseball with nothing on the line.

In Wrigley, you had packed houses of screaming fans. In PNC Park, you had the smallest crowd (8,565) in park history.

The Reds lost 6-3 on a night the Pittsburgh Pirates made five errors and their starter, Ryan Vogelsong, needed 102 pitches to get through five innings - five shutout innings, mind you.

"When we played the Cubs, we did a good job," D'Angelo Jimenez said. "There was a lot intensity. Here, it's not the same. But you still have to play hard."

Reds starter Todd Van Poppel gave up a two-out, three-run homer to Matt Stairs in the first.

The ball literally left the yard. It hit the bushes along the banks of Allegheny River and rolled into the water.

Stairs has been a Reds killer. The shot off Van Poppel gave him five home runs and 12 RBI against Cincinnati this year.

Van Poppel allowed a single to the next hitter, Craig Wilson, then settled in.

He retired the next nine he faced. He was cruising until control problems put him in a tight spot with an out in the sixth. He walked Stairs and hit Craig Wilson with a pitch. Van Poppel got the second out, but went to 3-2 on Jack Wilson. Wilson lined one over left fielder Dernell Stenson's head to get both runners home. That made it 5-0.

"He kept us in it," Reds manager Dave Miley said of Van Poppel. "He gave us a chance. They came up with the big hit.

"We didn't."

Van Poppel allowed the five runs on five hits over six innings. In two previous outings since being recalled from Triple-A Louisville on Sept. 5, he had allowed one run in 12 innings.

Vogelsong earned his first big league victory. Of 102 pitches, only 55 were strikes.

The Reds stranded seven runners in the first three innings.

"We hadn't faced him before," Jimenez said. "You want to see a lot of pitchers, try to pick up the rotation on the ball."

The problem was the Reds didn't do much once they got deep in the count. "We helped (Vogelsong) out by chasing pitches out of strike zone," Miley said. "We had opportunities."

Cincinnati	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Olmedo ss	4	0	1	0	1	0	.255
Valent rf	5	0	0	0	0	0	.243
DJimenez 2b	5	0	1	1	0	0	.300
Casey 1b	5	0	2	0	0	0	.290
Branyan 3b	3	0	1	0	1	0	.236
WPena cf	4	0	0	0	0	1	.202
Stenson lf	4	1	1	0	0	1	.250
CMiller c	3	1	1	0	1	0	.304
Van Poppel p	2	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Hummel ph	1	1	1	0	0	0	.222
Pnorton p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
LaRue ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.229
Cerros p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Totals	37	3	8	1	3	2

Pittsburgh	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
TRedman cf	3	0	1	0	1	0	.295
Anunez 2b	4	1	0	0	0	0	.253
Kendall c	4	0	0	0	0	1	.322
RSanders lf	3	1	0	0	1	0	.283
Stairs 1b	2	2	1	3	1	0	.295
Rivera 1b	1	1	1	0	0	0	.205
Cwilson rf	3	1	2	0	0	0	.269
Mackowiak 3b	3	0	1	0	1	0	.257
JHernandez 3b	0	0	0	0	0	0	.225
Jwilson ss	3	0	1	3	0	0	.250
Vogelsong p	1	0	0	0	0	0	.000
JDavis ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.300
Meadows p	1	0	0	0	0	0	.071
Gonzalez p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Reboulet ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.242
Tavarez p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Totals	30	6	7	6	4	1

Cincinnati	000	000	120	-3	8	0
Pittsburgh	300	002	01x	-6	7	4

E-Mackowiak (2), JWilson (17), Vogelsong (1), Meadows (2). LOB-Cin 10, Pitt 6. 2B-CWilson (14), JWilson (20). HR-Stairs (18), off Van Poppel. RBIs-DJimenez (27), Stairs 3 (51), JWilson 3 (55). SB-TRedman (4), ANunez (7), Mackowiak (4).

Cincinnati	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Van Poppel L, 0-1	6	5	5	5	3	1	98	5.40
Pnorton	1	0	0	0	0	0	7	3.65
Cerros	1	2	1	1	1	0	15	7.71

Pittsburgh	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Vogelsong W, 1-1	5	3	0	0	3	2	102	7.24
Meadows H, 3	2 2/3	5	3	1	0	0	48	4.94
Gonzalez H, 3	1/3	0	0	0	0	0	6	7.71
Tavarez S, 8	1	0	0	0	0	0	13	3.87

T-2:38. A-8,565 (37,898).