By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Cincinnati Reds second baseman D'Angelo Jimenez, front, and Houston Astros' Morgan Ensberg get tangled up as each looks to first base to see a double play completed (Pat Sullivan/The Associated Press)

HOUSTON - Remember the Puerto Rican Purge last year, when the Reds shook up their roster after losing seven of eight games?

Maybe it's time for something along those lines.

The Reds lost their fourth straight Saturday night, falling to the Houston Astros 10-4 at Minute Maid Park.

The Reds might not need to make seven roster moves, as they did April 19 of last year. But the Reds are a team with a lot of problems.

The bullpen continued its gas-on-a-fire run. Brian Reith gave up four eighth-inning runs to erase all shadow of doubt Saturday.

"They're scuffling a bit," manager Dave Miley said.

The weakness of the bench has come to the forefront with two of the eight starting position players - Austin Kearns and Jason LaRue - on the disabled list.

Miley tried his fourth right fielder, Ryan Freel, since Kearns was hurt. Collectively, the four are 2-for-17. Corky Miler is 0-for-6 since taking over for LaRue and has not played well defensively.

The bullpen ERA is up to 5.45. Reith has given up six runs in his last two innings.

The Reds, who started the season so well, are only a game over .500 at 12-11. They are 3-5 on their current road trip.

It started to go wrong with the starting pitching. Aaron Harang failed to make a quality start (six innings or more, three runs or fewer). The Reds are 4-8 when that happens.

The Reds' bats also have been quiet. They've managed a total of 11 hits in the two losses to the Astros. Brandon Larson was most of the offense Saturday - 2-for-4 with a two-run homer.

"I feel pretty good," Larson said. "It would be nice to have gotten a win. But I got some pitches I was able to put good wood on."

Harang did a good job minimizing the damage in the first inning after giving up three straight hits to start the game. The third hit, Jeff Bagwell's single, drove in Craig Biggio. But when Bagwell tried to advance to second on the throw home, the Reds caught him in a rundown.

Jeff Kent got a second run in with a sacrifice fly.

"They were hitting everything I was throwing," Harang said.

It was Harang's worst outing of the year. He went 4 1/3 innings, allowing four runs on 10 hits. He struck out two and walked three.

Astros starter Wade Miller, who improved to 7-1 in his career against the Reds, retired the first four he faced before Adam Dunn walked. Larson followed by hitting one high off the wall in left field for his first home run of the year, tying it at 2.

The Reds took the lead in the third. D'Angelo Jimenez walked, and an out later, Ken Griffey Jr. doubled him in.

Harang allowed a run in the fourth and another in the fifth to make it 4-3.

Todd Van Poppel relieved with the bases loaded and one out in the fifth and induced Brad Ausmus to hit into a 5-4-3 double play with his first pitch.

Van Poppel allowed two runs in the sixth, but he should have gotten out of the inning unscathed.

With two outs and a runner at second, Bagwell hit a fly ball to left. Dunn lost it in the lights and it fell about 10 feet from where he was standing. Bagwell ended up with a gift double and scored on Kent's single that made it 6-3.

Cincinnati	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
DJimenez 2b	4	1	0	0	1	1	.225
Larkin ss	5	0	2	1	0	1	.280
Griffey Jr. cf	4	0	1	1	1	0	.224
Casey 1b	3	0	0	0	1	1	.400
Dunn lf	3	1	0	0	1	2	.313
Larson 3b	4	1	2	2	0	0	.357
Freel rf	3	0	0	0	1	2	.243
CMiller c	2	0	0	0	1	1	.000
Valentin ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.059
Harang p	2	0	0	0	0	1	.000
Van Poppel p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.500
Romano ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.111
Reith p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
PNorton p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
JaCruz ph	1	1	1	0	0	0	.200
Totals	33	4	6	4	6	9

Houston	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Biggio cf	3	2	3	1	1	0	.348
AEverett ss	5	2	2	0	0	2	.300
Bagwell 1b	5	2	3	1	0	1	.333
JKent 2b	3	1	2	4	1	0	.274
Berkman lf	2	1	0	0	3	0	.292
Hidalgo rf	4	0	3	3	0	0	.360
Lane rf	0	0	0	0	0	0	.333
Ensberg 3b	4	0	1	0	0	0	.196
Ausmus c	5	1	1	0	0	1	.267
WMiller p	1	0	1	0	0	0	.333
OPalmeiro ph	0	1	0	0	1	0	.238
Backe p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Gallo p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Lamb ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.353
Lidge p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Duckworth p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Totals	33	10	16	9	6	4

Cincinnati	021	000	001	-4	6	0
Houston	200	112	04x	-10	16	0

LOB-Cincinnati 8, Houston 10. 2B-Griffey Jr. (7), Biggio (10), Bagwell (6), JKent (6). 3B-Hidalgo (2). HR-Larson (1), off WMiller. RBIs-Larkin (6), Griffey Jr. (14), Larson 2 (3), Biggio (17), Bagwell (18), JKent 4 (16), Hidalgo 3 (25). SB-Freel (4). S-Biggio, Ensberg, WMiller. SF-JKent, Hidalgo. GIDP-Ausmus. DP-Cincinnati 2.

Cincinnati	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Harang L, 2-1	4 1/3	10	4	4	3	2	84	4.28
Van Poppel	1 2/3	2	2	2	1	1	20	6.00
Reith	1 1/3	4	4	4	2	1	38	8.68
PNorton	2/3	0	0	0	0	0	3	8.59

Houston	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
WMiller W, 3-2	6	2	3	3	6	7	110	3.38
Backe H, 1	2/3	1	0	0	0	0	11	2.45
Gallo H, 1	1/3	0	0	0	0	0	2	0.00
Lidge H, 2	1	1	0	0	0	2	12	2.25
Duckworth	1	2	1	1	0	0	24	7.02

Inherited runners-scored-Van Poppel 3-0, PNorton 1-0, Gallo 1-0. WP-Harang, Van Poppel. T-2:53. A-40,104 (40,950).