By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Sammy Sosa celebrates career homer No. 536 in the third inning Wednesday at Great American Ball Park. (Ernest Coleman photo) | ZOOM |

Before Wednesday's game with the Chicago Cubs, Reds manager Dave Miley said to no one in particular:

"It will be interesting to see how Josh Hall does against these guys the second time."

Afterward, labeling Hall's outing "interesting" would have been a politically correct cop-out.

Hall, who looked so good against the Cubs 10 days ago, was thoroughly roughed up over 2 2/3 innings of the Cubs' 8-0 victory over the Reds before a crowd of 27,021 at Great American Ball Park.

"He pitched tentatively," Miley said. "The walks really hurt him. He didn't do that the last time he pitched against them."

The Reds have been outscored 14-0 and outhit 18-6 in this series.

"That's a little bit of a run differential," Miley said.

The Cubs started the game knowing they had to win to retain sole possession of first place in the National League Central. The Cubs began the day one game ahead of Houston, but the Astros beat San Francisco 2-1 in an afternoon game to snap a four-game losing streak.

"We know their situation," Hall said. "That should give us a boost, trying to spoil it for them. But we haven't played well."

The Astros' win put a lot of pressure on left-hander Shawn Estes, the former Red. He responded.

"He was on from the get-go," Cubs catcher Paul Bako said. "He had a great a curveball. He pitched in. You could tell he was relaxed."

Estes wasn't as dazzling Wednesday as Kerry Wood was Tuesday. But Estes was just as effective.

Estes came in 7-11 with a 6.09 ERA, but the Reds got only one runner to second base before the ninth inning. The win was the first for Estes since July 27.

Hall, a rookie right-hander, threw seven shutout innings against the Cubs Sept.14.

Hall allowed an unearned run in the second, and then the wheels came off in the third.

Sammy Sosa led off with his 27th home run of the year. It was career homer No. 536 for Sosa, tying him with Mickey Mantle for 10th all time.

Hall walked Moises Alou, then got an out and should have gotten another. But D'Angelo Jimenez wasn't able to pick up a routine groundball off the bat of Randall Simon.

Hall loaded the bases by walking Alex Gonzalez. Paul Bako cleared the bases with a double to the wall in right-center. When pitcher Estes and Kenny Lofton reached on singles, Hall was done.

Matt Belisle relieved and promptly gave up a two-run double to Mark Grudzielanek. That made it 7-0.

Good night, drive safely, come back tomorrow to see if the Cubs can complete the sweep.

Chicago	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Lofton cf	4	1	2	1	1	0	.295
Goodwin rf	0	0	0	0	0	0	.295
Grudzielanek 2b	5	0	1	2	0	0	.312
SSosa rf	4	2	1	1	1	2	.279
Glanville cf	0	0	0	0	0	0	.234
Alou lf	2	1	0	0	3	0	.283
O'Leary lf	0	0	0	0	0	0	.214
ARamirez 3b	5	0	1	1	0	0	.273
Simon 1b	4	1	1	0	0	0	.270
Karros ph-1b	1	0	0	0	0	0	.287
ASGonzalez ss	4	2	1	0	1	1	.226
Bako c	4	0	1	3	0	1	.228
Estes p	4	1	2	0	0	0	.179
Totals	37	8	10	8	6	4

Cincinnati	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Freel cf	4	0	1	0	0	0	.301
Hummel 3b	2	0	0	0	2	0	.225
DJimenez 2b	4	0	0	0	0	0	.295
Casey 1b	4	0	0	0	0	1	.289
Branyan lf	4	0	1	0	0	1	.213
WPena rf	3	0	1	0	0	0	.217
LaRue c	3	0	1	0	0	0	.228
Olmedo ss	3	0	0	0	0	0	.244
Hall p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.167
Belisle p	1	0	0	0	0	1	.000
Smitherman ph	1	0	0	0	0	1	.140
Cerros p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
RMateo ph	1	0	0	0	0	1	.244
Serafini p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Totals	30	0	4	0	2	5

Chicago	016	000	001	-8	10	0
Cincinnati	000	000	000	-0	4	2

E-Hummel (4), DJimenez (4). LOB-Chicago 8, Cincinnati 5. 2B-Grudzielanek (37), Bako (13). HR-SSosa (37), off Hall. RBIs-Lofton (45), Grudzielanek 2 (35), SSosa (98), ARamirez (105), Bako 3 (16). GIDP-DJimenez.

Runners left in scoring position-Chicago 4 ; Cincinnati 3.

Runners moved up-Bako, Casey.

DP-Chicago 1 ; Cincinnati .

Chicago	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Estes W, 8-11	9	4	0	0	2	5	115	5.73

Cincinnati	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Hall L, 0-2	2 2/3	6	7	3	4	0	68	6.57
Belisle	2 1/3	2	0	0	0	3	27	5.87
Cerros	3	1	0	0	0	1	40	5.73
Serafini	1	1	1	1	2	0	20	6.00

T-2:35. A-27,021 (42,263).