By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer

PITTSBURGH - You've heard of a rain delay. How about a hurricane fast-forward?

Today's Reds game with the Pittsburgh Pirates was moved from 7:05 p.m. to 12:35 p.m. to avoid the bad weather headed this way with Hurricane Isabel.

The weather was a big topic of conversation as the Reds prepared for Wednesday's game. It was beautiful outside - 70 degrees, not a cloud in the sky - but Isabel could dump as much as 9 inches of rain on parts of Pennsylvania.

The Reds are scheduled to fly from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia after today's game for a three-game series that opens Friday.

The travel concerns were eased when the Pirates announced the time change. The Phillies moved their game today with the Florida Marlins from 7:05 p.m. to 1:05. Baltimore also shifted its game with the Yankees from night to day.

The Reds game will be on WLW-AM (700), but there will be no TV coverage.

A FIRST: As Brian Reith went to the mound for the ninth inning Tuesday night, he figured he was in line to earn his first big-league save.

He was, and he did.

But just as important to Reith as the save was putting together another good outing - his second in a row. He pitched three innings of one-run ball Friday.

Before that, he had a 7.20 ERA over his previous 12 outings.

The two outings indicate that Reith's stuff is back. He has allowed four hits, struck out seven and walked one in 5 1/3 innings. In the bad streak, he allowed 22 hits, struck out seven and walked 11 in 15 innings.

"The longer outings have given me time to work through things," he said. "I have better command. I'm sharper. That's what I want. I want to finish strong."

GOOD GUYS: Much has been made of the Reds trading away good character guys this year, but the trend goes back further. The 30 club nominees for the Roberto Clemente Award were announced Wednesday. The award goes to the player who combines on-the-field skills with community service.

Six of the nominees are former Reds: Baltimore's Brook Fordyce, the Chicago Cubs' Mike Remlinger, Detroit's Dmitri Young, Montreal's Joey Eischen, the New York Mets' John Franco and Pittsburgh's Reggie Sanders.

Pitcher Danny Graves is the Reds' nominee.