By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Seth Etherton left the mound after one inning due to arm problems. (Associated Press photo) | ZOOM |

PITTSBURGH - The most dangerous thing to do in baseball this year may be to take to the mound as a starter for the Cincinnati Reds.

Seth Etherton was dealt the Curse of the Rotation Wednesday.

Etherton had to leave his start against Pittsburgh after only one inning because of stiffness and soreness in his right forearm, near his elbow.

He was around long enough to allow two runs and get tagged with the loss as the Pirates beat the Reds 8-5.

"I felt good warming up," Etherton said. "The first 10 pitches were fine. Then it throbbed a little. I felt it the most on the curveball."

Pitching coach Don Gullett could tell Etherton was struggling, and asked the pitcher about it after the first inning.

"Gully said there was no need to continue," Etherton said. "It's been a long year."

The Reds tied a franchise record this year by using 15 different starting pitchers. Of the 15, four (Danny Graves, Paul Wilson, Ryan Dempster and Jimmy Haynes) are out for the year, and one (Jose Acevedo) is likely to be finished. Two others (John Riedling and Aaron Harang) missed time with injuries.

Etherton, a 26-year-old right-hander, went nearly three years between big-league starts while coming back from shoulder problems. This is his first elbow injury.

"It's frustrating," he said. "The last thing I want to do after what I've been through is not pitch."

Wednesday was Etherton's seventh start of the year, and only two of them have been quality outings. He struggled in his last two - 6 2/3 innings, 17 hits, nine runs - before Wednesday.

The trend continued. He faced seven batters and allowed two runs in the first inning Wednesday.

Danny Serafini, who hadn't pitched since a week ago and was taken out of the rotation when Harang returned from a back injury, took over for Etherton. He went 4 2/3 innings, threw 105 pitches and allowed three runs on eight hits.

The Reds' pitchers (Etherton, Serafini, Juan Cerros and Matt Cerros) threw 179 pitches in eight innings.

"A lot of pitches," Reds manager Dave Miley said. "It seemed like we were 3-1, 3-2 on every hitter."

Dubious Distinction of the Day: Cerros gave up a home run to Matt Stairs in the sixth. It was the 199th allowed by the Reds this year, a club record.

Jeff D'Amico allowed only one hit through five innings and retired 14 of 15 in one stretch. The Reds were down 7-1 before rallying for four runs in the eighth.

"They battle," Miley said.

Cincinnati	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Freel cf	5	2	3	0	0	0	.317
Olmedo ss	5	1	2	1	0	2	.258
DJimenez 2b	4	1	1	0	1	1	.305
Casey 1b	3	1	1	1	2	0	.292
Branyan 3b	2	0	0	1	1	1	.232
WPena lf	4	0	1	1	0	1	.212
LaRue c	4	0	1	1	0	1	.230
RMateo rf	4	0	0	0	0	1	.251
Etherton p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.143
Serafini p	2	0	0	0	0	1	.000
Cerros p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Valent ph	1	0	0	0	0	1	.231
Stenson ph	1	0	0	0	0	1	.246
Belisle p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Totals	35	5	9	5	4	10

Pittsburgh	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
TRedman cf	4	2	3	1	1	0	.303
ANunez 2b	3	1	1	1	1	0	.251
Kendall c	5	1	3	0	0	0	.324
RSanders lf	0	0	0	0	0	0	.285
Bay ph-lf	4	1	2	1	1	1	.296
Stairs 1b	3	2	2	2	0	0	.295
Rivera 1b	0	0	0	1	0	0	.203
CWilson rf	5	0	0	0	0	2	.267
JHernandez 3b	4	0	1	0	0	1	.225
JWilson ss	4	1	2	1	0	0	.253
D'Amico p	3	0	0	0	1	2	.130
Gonzalez p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Lincoln p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Tavarez p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Totals	35	8	14	7	4	6

Cincinnati	000	001	040	-5	9	2
Pittsburgh	200	113	01x	-8	14	1

E-Olmedo (12), DJimenez (3), JHernandez (14). LOB-Cincinnati 8, Pittsburgh 10. 2B-Freel 2 (5), Kendall (28). 3B-Casey (3), ANunez (5), Bay (1), JWilson (3). HR-Stairs (19), off Cerros. RBIs-Olmedo (15), Casey (73), Branyan (24), WPena (14), LaRue (50), TRedman (16), ANunez (32), Bay (6), Stairs 2 (53), Rivera (7), JWilson (57). SB-DJimenez (7). S-ANunez. SF-Branyan, Rivera. GIDP-Casey, ANunez, Kendall. DP-Cincinnati 2, Pittsburgh 1.

Cincinnati	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Etherton L, 2-4	1	2	2	2	1	0	28	6.90
Serafini	4 2/3	8	3	3	2	3	105	6.17
Cerros	1 1/3	2	2	2	0	2	27	9.00
Belisle	1	2	1	1	1	1	19	8.44

Pittsburgh	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
D'Amico W, 9-15	7 1/3	5	4	4	3	8	111	4.65
Gonzalez	1/3	0	1	1	1	0	10	8.59
Lincoln	0	2	0	0	0	0	6	5.51
Tavarez S, 9	1 1/3	2	0	0	0	2	27	3.81

HBP-by Etherton (Stairs). WP-D'Amico.

Umpires-Home, Tim Timmons; First, Mike Reilly; Second, Bill Hohn; Third, Eric Cooper.

T-3:19. A-10,625 (37,898).