By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer

PHILADELPHIA - The first rule of 2004 Reds baseball is: QS = V, or quality start equals victory.

PHOTO GALLERY

Photos of Monday's game

The Reds got their fifth quality start of the season Monday, and true to form, it led to a victory. The Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies 4-1 Monday to spoil the first game at Citizens Bank Park.

The Reds are 5-0 when they get a quality start (six innings, three runs or fewer), and 0-2 when they don't.

Go figure note of the day: The Reds are 5-2, the Phillies are 1-6.

Paul Wilson pitched beautifully on a perfectly miserable day. It was 48 degrees and drizzling at the start. The rain picked up and temperature dropped as the day went on.

"The conditions were probably the worst I've ever pitched in," Wilson said.

But that did not keep him from executing "The Plan" that has been drilled into Reds pitchers' heads since spring training: Throw strikes, pitch to contact.

BALLPARK OPENERS

The Reds have been the opponent in the first game at five stadiums. The Reds are 4-1 in those games: Date Stadium Result 4/10/62 Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles W, 6-3 7/16/70 Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh W, 3-2 4/6/01 Miller Park, Milwaukee L, 5-4 4/9/01 PNC Park, Pittsburgh W, 8-2 4/12/04 Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia W, 4-1

Wilson went 7 1/3 innings, allowing one run on six hits. He walked two and struck out two.

He benefited from a couple of nice plays in the outfield by Ken Griffey Jr. and Adam Dunn.

"Defensively, under the conditions, we were outstanding," Wilson said.

Wilson sort of typifies the Reds' starting pitchers. He doesn't throw overly hard, but he spots the ball and uses a variety of pitches.

"He's a professional, no question," Reds manager Dave Miley said. "He knows what he's doing out there. He's focused."

Wilson said focusing was difficult Monday.

"Pitching when it's cold like that is tough," he said. "I told myself I wasn't going to think about it being cold. They had to play in it, too."

The Reds staked Wilson to a 1-0 lead in the first. D'Angelo Jimenez got into the history books by leading off the game with a double, thus the first hit in Citizens Bank history.

Barry Larkin followed with a groundout to second, which allowed Jimenez to go to third. That was big because Jimenez scored when Randy Wolf threw a wild pitch with Griffey at the plate.

The Phils tied it in the first on Bobby Abreu's opposite field home run.

But the Reds came right back with a run in the second. Adam Dunn doubled and scored on Ryan Freel's single.

A play by Griffey prevented a possible big inning by the Phils in the third. Wolf led off with a shot that looked like it was headed for the left-center gap, but Griffey made a diving stop on the hit and got the ball back into the infield. Wolf was caught in a run down for the first out. Wilson walked two batters after that, but he escaped with no damage.

The Reds added two runs in the fifth on an RBI double from Griffey and a sacrifice fly from Sean Casey.

By then, Wilson was rolling. He had retired 13 of 14 heading into the eighth.

"Every game needs a little drama," Wilson said. "We definitely had drama in the eighth."

Wilson gave up a single to pinch-hitter Ricky Ledee and another one an out later to Placido Polanco.

That brought up the Phillies' left-hander power tandem of Abreu and Jim Thome - a perfect matchup for the Reds' lone lefty reliever Phil Norton.

Norton induced Abreu to fly out and struck out Thome looking with 78 mph curveball. "Those were two big outs," Miley said.

Danny Graves pitched the ninth for his fourth save in four tries. But it all goes back to that quality start.

Wilson is 2-0. He has gone 14 1/3 innings, allowing one run (0.63 ERA) on 10 hits. He has struck out eight and walked three. He kept his start and club's start in perspective, though.

"It's early," Wilson said. "We're professionals. Nobody's doing back flips."

---

E-mail jfay@enquirer.com

Cincinnati	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
DJimenez 2b	5	2	2	0	0	0	.320
Larkin ss	3	1	1	0	0	0	.150
JCastro ss-3b	2	0	0	0	0	1	.133
Griffey Jr. cf	4	0	1	1	1	1	.318
Kearns rf	5	0	1	0	0	3	.179
Casey 1b	4	0	0	1	0	0	.385
Dunn lf	3	1	2	0	1	0	.381
LaRue c	3	0	1	0	1	1	.059
Freel 3b	3	0	2	1	1	1	.320
Olmedo ss	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
PWilson p	3	0	1	0	0	2	.250
PNorton p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Graves p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Totals	35	4	11	3	4	9

Philadelphia	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Byrd cf	3	0	0	0	1	1	.200
Polanco 2b	4	0	1	0	0	0	.286
BAbreu rf	3	1	1	1	1	0	.120
Thome 1b	4	0	2	0	0	1	.296
Burrell lf	4	0	0	0	0	0	.308
Lieberthal c	4	0	0	0	0	0	.083
Rollins ss	4	0	0	0	0	0	.160
DaBell 3b	3	0	0	0	0	1	.286
Wolf p	1	0	1	0	0	0	.667
Glanville ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.250
Madson p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Ledee ph	1	0	1	0	0	0	.200
Cormier p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Totals	32	1	6	1	2	3

Cincinnati	110	020	000	-4	11	0
Philadelphia	100	000	000	-1	6	0

LOB-Cincinnati 10, Philadelphia 6. 2B-DJimenez (2), Griffey Jr. (2), Dunn (1), Thome (4). 3B-Kearns (1). HR-BAbreu (1), off PWilson. RBIs-Griffey Jr. (5), Casey (8), Freel (1), BAbreu (2). SB-Byrd (1). S-PWilson. SF-Casey. GIDP-DJimenez.

DP-Philadelphia 1 (Rollins, Polanco and Thome).

Cincinnati	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
PWilson W, 2-0	7 1/3	6	1	1	2	2	96	0.63
PNorton H, 2	2/3	0	0	0	0	1	7	0.00
Graves S, 4	1	0	0	0	0	0	10	2.25

Philadelphia	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Wolf L, 0-1	5	7	4	4	3	4	86	6.10
Madson	3	3	0	0	1	4	48	0.00
Cormier	1	1	0	0	0	1	22	6.75

Inherited runners-scored-PNorton 2-0.

WP-PWilson, Wolf.

T-2:41. A-41,626 (43,500).