By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer

PHOTO GALLERY

Photos from Thursday's game

The Reds were playing a game within a game Thursday against the Atlanta Braves.

Professional and amateur meteorologists alike knew that there was only a small window of opportunity for baseball.

So the idea was to win the game - and do it as quickly as possible.

The Reds succeeded on both fronts, beating the Braves 5-3 in 5 innings before 19,909 water-logged fans at Great American Ball Park.

The victory allowed the Reds to take the series, and it eased the pain somewhat of Wednesday's tough loss.

"It's nice to take two of three from anybody anytime," outfielder Ken Griffey Jr. said. "Those were difficult decisions. You're trying to get out of there without getting anyone hurt."

So far this season, the Reds have won their three series at home, and split the two on the road.

Rain delayed the start of the game by an hour, resumed shortly after play began, and forced the teams to their dugouts in the bottom of the fifth inning.

The game was called after a one-hour, 47-minute delay.

"There was a question if we were even going to get five innings in," Reds manager Dave Miley said.

Because of the forecast, the five runs the Reds put up in the second inning were huge.

"It was nice to get those," said starter Cory Lidle (2-1), who got the "complete game" win. "We knew we were only going to play five or six today, so that was big for us."

The Reds put up the five mostly by being patient against Atlanta starter Jaret Wright.

Adam Dunn started the inning with a walk. He went hard into second and prevented the Braves from turning two on Austin Kearns' ground ball to third. Jason LaRue followed with a single to center. Juan Castro then reached on an infield single to load the bases.

Kearns scored and LaRue and Castro moved up on Johnny Estrada's passed ball with Lidle at the plate.

Lidle worked a walk to reload the bases.

"Hey, I'm not going to swing if they're off the plate," Lidle said. "You got to do what you can do."

Then came the key at-bat of the game. D'Angelo Jimenez came up mired in a career-high 0-for-22 skid.

"I just wanted to a good at-bat," he said, "get the run in."

He had a great at-bat. He fouled off four pitches after Wright got two strikes on him. Finally, on the 10th pitch of the at-bat, Wright threw ball four to force in the second run.

Wright got Ryan Freel to take a called third strike, which brought up Griffey, who was 6-for-his-last-37 (.162).

"I was just trying not to make an out with the bases loaded," Griffey said. "I wanted something to drive."

Griffey sliced one deep to right.

"It had serious top spin on it," he said. "I was just thinking: Stay fair."

It did, and two runs scored.

Sean Casey followed with a ground ball that went right under second baseman Marcus Giles' glove for a single.

That made it 5-0.

With the rain picking up, the task for the Reds become playing 41/2 innings while holding a lead.

That played on Lidle's mind, who had allowed just one hit through the first three innings.

But he gave up back-to-back, one-out singles to Giles and J.D. Drew. Adam LaRoche got Giles home with a double. Estrada drove in Drew and LaRoche with a double to right and it was a 5-3 game.

"I was rushing a little," Lidle said. "The rain was coming down heavy by then. The mound was getting muddy and sticky. I should have had them fix the mound."

Lidle got Mark DeRosa to fly out to end the inning, then worked a 1-2-3 fifth.

Two out into the Reds half of the fifth inning, crew chief Tim McClelland waved the players off. It was either that, or start building an ark.

LaRue made the final out before it was called.

"That last at-bat, it was hard to see," LaRue said. "I had to shake my helmet to get the water off. The batter's box was muddy. It was hard to set your feet."

Atlanta	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Furcal ss	3	0	0	0	0	0	.185
DWise lf	3	0	0	0	0	1	.233
MGiles 2b	2	1	1	0	0	0	.373
JDrew rf	2	1	1	0	0	0	.200
AJones cf	2	0	0	0	0	0	.236
Laroche 1b	2	1	1	1	0	0	.225
JEstrada c	1	0	1	2	1	0	.273
DeRosa 3b	2	0	1	0	0	0	.235
JSWright p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.333
JuCruz p	1	0	0	0	0	1	.000
JGarcia ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.229
Nitkowski p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Totals	19	3	5	3	1	2

Cincinnati	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
DJimenez 2b	1	1	0	1	2	1	.214
Freel 3b	3	0	0	0	0	2	.268
Griffey Jr. cf	2	0	1	2	1	0	.245
Casey 1b	3	0	1	1	0	0	.418
Dunn lf	1	0	0	0	2	0	.356
Kearns rf	2	1	0	0	1	0	.140
LaRue c	3	1	1	0	0	0	.184
JCastro ss	2	1	2	0	0	0	.267
Lidle p	1	1	0	0	1	0	.250
Totals	18	5	5	4	7	3

Atlanta	000	30	-3	5	0
Cincinnati	050	00	-5	5	0

Two outs when winning run scored.

LOB-Atlanta 2, Cincinnati 6. 2B-Laroche (3), JEstrada (4), JCastro (2). RBIs-Laroche (5), JEstrada 2 (13), DJimenez (7), Griffey Jr. 2 (9), Casey (15). CS-DJimenez (2). GIDP-Furcal.

DP-Atlanta 1 (JEstrada and Furcal); Cincinnati 1 (Freel and Casey).

Atlanta	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
JSWright L, 1-1	1 2/3	4	5	5	5	2	53	5.27
JuCruz	2 1/3	1	0	0	0	1	26	1.00
Nitkowski	2/3	0	0	0	2	0	18	4.50

Cincinnati	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Lidle W, 2-1	5	5	3	3	1	2	70	4.13

Inherited runners-scored-JuCruz 2-0.

PB-JEstrada.

T-1:40. A-19,909 (42,271).