By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Want to know why the Reds are where they are and the Chicago Cubs are where they are? The Reds started their 16th different pitcher Tuesday night; the Cubs started Kerry Wood.

Wily Mo Pena avoids the collision with teammate Sean Casey as he catches a Sammy Sosa pop fly. (Jeff Swinger photo) | ZOOM |

The result was a 6-0 victory for the Cubs before a crowd of 26,124 - many of them doing dead-on impersonations of Cubs fans - at Great American Ball Park.

Wood pitched seven innings of one-hit, shutout ball. Wily Mo Pena beat out a high-chopper in the seventh for the hit. Wood struck out 12 and walked four.

"It was a great performance," Chicago manager Dusty Baker said. "And it was much needed. (The Reds) beat us in Chicago. They're capable of putting up runs. It was important to win this first game."

That's because the Cubs came into the three-game series tied with the Houston Astros for first place in the National League Central. The Reds came in one game out of last in the Central.

Scott Randall, starter No. 16, did well until the Cubs' order came around for the third time. The Cubs opened the sixth inning with four straight hits on their way to a four-run inning.

Shortly after the Cubs put up the four runs, the out-of-town scoreboard on the left-field wall changed to:

San Francisco 10, Houston 0

The folks in Cubs garb loved it, and the roar made the Cubs feel like they were at Wrigley Field.

"The fans have been coming out for us all year," Wood said. "They were here in big numbers. It felt like a home game."

Wood came in on a roll. He was 2-1 with a 1.00 ERA in his last five starts and had struck out 46 batters in 36 innings. He pitched a complete-game, four-hit shutout to beat the New York Mets 2-0 in his last start.

The Reds got a runner in scoring position in the first (a walk and an error) and the second (a walk and a groundout).

But the Reds did not hit a ball out of the infield until the seventh. In fact, they rarely hit the ball. Wood recorded his 10th strikeout by the fifth inning. It was his 37th game with 10 or more strikeouts.

With Wood's fastball topping out at 96 mph and his curve dropping in a 79 or so, the no-hit buzz started about the fifth.

"He had some pretty good stuff going," Reds manager Dave Miley said.

Randall, making his first big-league start, matched Wood zero for zero until the fifth.

Randall had retired 12 in a row when Pirates exile Aramis Ramirez led off the inning with a drive into the left-field bleachers for his 27th home run of the year to make it 1-0. Then came the four-run fifth.

The only drama left was seeing how far Wood could take the no-no, although Wood didn't see it that way.

"After we scored the runs, I wasn't thinking about the no-hitter," he said. "I was thinking about the win."

Wood retired 15 in a row before walking Russell Branyan with one out in the seventh.

Pena followed with a high chopper to Ramirez at third. Pena's speed, one of his five tools, made it no contest at first.

"I knew it was a hit as soon as it hit the plate," Wood said.

LaRue followed with a drive to left. Moises Alou caught it, but it was the first ball the Reds hit out of the infield.

Wood finished the inning, but Baker pulled him afterward because his pitch count was at 122.

Baker might have made the move even if Pena was out at first. "At this point, you exclude individual things and try to win," Baker said.

Chicago	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Lofton cf	3	1	2	1	0	1	.293
Grudzielanek 2b	4	1	1	2	0	0	.313
Alou lf	4	1	1	1	0	1	.284
SSosa rf	4	0	0	0	0	0	.279
ARamirez 3b	4	1	2	2	0	0	.273
Simon 1b	4	0	0	0	0	0	.271
ASGonzalez ss	4	0	0	0	0	1	.225
DMiller c	4	1	1	0	0	1	.233
Wood p	2	1	1	0	0	0	.164
Farnsworth p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Remlinger p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Totals	33	6	8	6	0	4

Cincinnati	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Freel cf	4	0	0	0	0	2	.303
Hummel 3b	4	0	0	0	0	1	.231
DJimenez 2b	3	0	0	0	1	1	.299
Casey 1b	4	0	1	0	0	0	.291
Branyan lf	3	0	0	0	1	2	.212
WPena rf	3	0	1	0	1	2	.215
LaRue c	3	0	0	0	1	1	.227
Olmedo ss	2	0	0	0	1	1	.248
Randall p	2	0	0	0	0	1	.333
Serafini p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Stenson ph	1	0	0	0	0	1	.239
Reith p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Cerros p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Totals	29	0	2	0	5	12

Chicago	000	014	100	-6	8	1
Cincinnati	000	000	000	-0	2	0

E-ARamirez (31). LOB-Chicago 2, Cincinnati 7. 2B-Lofton (32), Grudzielanek (36), DMiller (19). HR-ARamirez (27), off Randall. RBIs-Lofton (44), Grudzielanek 2 (33), Alou (90), ARamirez 2 (104). S-Wood. SF-Lofton. GIDP-LaRue.

Chicago	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Wood W, 14-11	7	1	0	0	4	12	122	3.20
Farnsworth	1	0	0	0	0	0	12	3.36
Remlinger	1	1	0	0	1	0	21	3.59

Cincinnati	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Randall L, 2-4	5 1/3	7	5	5	0	2	76	7.15
Serafini	1 2/3	1	1	1	0	0	15	5.88
Reith	1	0	0	0	0	1	12	4.47
Cerros	1	0	0	0	0	1	10	7.88

T-2:31. A-26,124 (42,263).