By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The Reds' Sean Casey collides with Braves catcher Eddie Perez and is out Wednesday at Great American Ball Park. Cincinnati Enquirer photos/JEFF SWINGER

Casey tosses the ball back to Perez after Perez had tossed the ball to Casey following the collision.

Casey is separated from arguing with Perez.

This should be a nice, tidy story about how Sean Casey hit a pair of home runs to lift the Reds to victory.

Instead, it's the story about how the Reds' bullpen could not close the deal.

Todd Jones and Danny Graves gave up leads Casey got. That pushed the game to extra innings. Brian Reith gave up a home run to Andruw Jones to start the 10th and Phil Norton replaced Reith and gave up a three-run home to Rafael Furcal on the first pitch he threw.

It all added up to an ugly 9-5 loss before a crowd of 29,472 at Great American Ball Park.

The bullpen, generally considered a strong point of the club, is struggling. Three of Reds last four losses were the result of blown saves.

After posting a 0.44 ERA in their first seven games, the relievers have a 10.71 ERA over the last seven.

The bullpen was highly regarded over what relief corps did last year. But only one of the seven relievers - John Riedling - was with club at the start of 2003.

A lot of good arms - Scott Williamson, Chris Reitsma (who got the win for the Braves Wednesday), Gabe White, Kent Mercker, Scott Sullivan, Felix Heredia - were dealt away.

This year, the crew is still trying to define roles. Jones, for instance, was in the prime setup role because of Ryan Wagner's recent struggles.

The loss spoiled a terrific night by Casey - 3-for-4, pushing his average to .423, two four RBI. He also nearly tangled with Atlanta catcher Eddie Perez after a collision at the plate.

Aaron Harang (2-0) struggled with hiscontrol, but was able to go six innings, allowing only two runs on four hits.

He left with 3-2 lead.

Little-used Todd Van Poppel pitched a perfect seventh.

Then Todd Jones gave up a two-out, two-run homer to Mark DeRosa and the Reds trailed 4-3.

That set up Casey's heroics. He hit a towering two-ruin shot to right-center to give the Reds the lead back.

Graves gave up a one-out single to Rafael Furcal. An out later, Marcus Giles singled him in.

Jason LaRue led off the bottom of the ninth with double. But the Reds couldn't advance him beyond second.

Andruw Jones hit the third pitch he saw from Reith out to left.

The Reds got a two-out rally going in the first against Horatio Ramirez, the 24-year-old left-hander.

Ken Griffey Jr. started it by tapping a little grounder toward third. The Braves, playing the shift, had no play. Austin Kearns followed with a walk.

Casey got Griffey home and Kearns to third with a sharp single. After Casey stole second, Adam Dunn walked to load the bases.

LaRue followed with a liner to left. Kearns scored easily. Casey tried to score from second. Left fielder Dwayne Wise's throw beat him easily. Casey went into catcher Perez hard.

Perez held on to ball, then dropped onto Casey after the home plate umpire Jim Wolf signaled out.

Casey didn't like the gesture. He tossed the ball at Perez.

Words were exchanged.

Both benches emptied.

But nothing really happened.

The Braves got a run back in the second, largely because Harang suddenly had difficulty finding the strike zone.

He walked J.D. Drew and Adam LaRoche. Mark DeRosa got Drew home with a single to right.

Harang danced with danger the next three innings.

He gave up an one-out triple in the third to Dewayne Wise, a one-out double to LaRoche in the fourth and leadoff walk and stolen base to Rafael Furcal in the fifth.

But Harang stranded all three.

Casey's homer in the sixth seemed to put the Reds in control.

Atlanta	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Furcal ss	5	2	2	3	1	0	.208
DWise lf	6	0	1	0	0	0	.259
MGiles 2b	5	0	1	1	0	1	.368
JDrew rf	4	2	1	0	1	1	.182
AJones cf	4	2	1	1	1	1	.245
Laroche 1b	4	1	2	1	1	0	.211
EddPerez c	3	0	0	0	0	0	.308
JuFranco ph	0	0	0	0	1	0	.240
Reitsma p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Marrero ph	1	0	0	0	0	1	.105
Smoltz p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
DeRosa 3b	3	1	2	3	2	0	.224
HRamirez p	2	0	0	0	0	1	.000
JGarcia ph	1	0	0	0	0	1	.235
Gryboski p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
JEstrada c	1	1	0	0	1	0	.256
Totals	39	9	10	9	8	6

Cincinnati	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
DJimenez 2b	5	0	0	0	0	2	.218
Larkin ss	5	1	2	0	0	0	.222
Griffey Jr. cf	5	1	1	0	0	1	.235
Kearns rf	3	1	0	0	2	1	.146
Casey 1b	4	2	3	4	0	0	.423
Dunn lf	3	0	1	0	1	2	.364
LaRue c	4	0	2	1	0	0	.171
Freel 3b	3	0	0	0	0	0	.283
JCastro 3b	1	0	0	0	0	0	.214
Harang p	2	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Van Poppel p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
WPena ph	1	0	0	0	0	1	.333
TJones p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Graves p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Valentin ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.100
Reith p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
PNorton p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Totals	37	5	9	5	3	7

Atlanta	010	001	021	4	-9	10	0
Cincinnati	200	001	020	0	-5	9	0

LOB-Atlanta 8, Cincinnati 5. 2B-JDrew (2), Laroche (2), Larkin (2), Dunn (2), LaRue (2). 3B-DWise (3). HR-Furcal (1), off PNorton; AJones (3), off Reith; Casey 2 (2), off Reitsma, HRamirez; Laroche (1), off Harang. RBIs-Furcal 3 (4), MGiles (11), AJones (9), Laroche (4), DeRosa 3 (5), Casey 4 (14), LaRue (3). SB-Furcal (4), JDrew (2), Casey (1). GIDP-Kearns.

DP-Atlanta 1 (Furcal and Laroche).

Atlanta	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
HRamirez	6	5	3	3	3	1	89	2.25
Gryboski	1	0	0	0	0	2	11	1.23
Reitsma W, 1-0 BS, 1	2	3	2	2	0	3	32	2.89
Smoltz	1	1	0	0	0	1	14	5.14

Cincinnati	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Harang	6	4	2	2	4	3	108	3.71
Van Poppel H, 1	1	0	0	0	0	1	10	3.38
TJones BS, 1	1	2	2	2	2	0	22	4.00
Graves BS, 2	1	2	1	1	0	1	14	4.50
Reith L, 0-1	2/3	1	3	3	2	1	26	4.26
PNorton	1/3	1	1	1	0	0	4	12.46

Inherited runners-scored-PNorton 2-2.

IBB-off TJones (JuFranco) 1, off Harang (DeRosa) 1.

T-3:01. A-29,472 (42,271).