By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer

If Reds manager Dave Miley had the medical report on Barry Bonds, he might have done things differently.

The Reds lost to Bonds and the San Francisco Giants 7-6 in 10 innings Sunday before a crowd of 30,204 at Great American Ball Park after Bonds was intentionally walked then scored the winning run.

D'Angelo Jimenez wipes his mouth on his shirt after committing an error in the sixth inning. (Michael E. Keating photo)

Bonds, 0-for-9 in the series, was sick Sunday. Sick enough that the Giants considered taking him out of the game.

"He's sick, sick," said teammate Marquis Grissom. "He showed me a lot playing these three games. I've seen things from him I've never seen - the way he's swinging at pitches, his balance is off."

Bonds has been dealing with a sinus infection that affects his equilibrium.

Miley might have walked Bonds, who led off the inning, even if he had known that.

"We felt like we had dipped in the wishing well enough," Miley said. "We knew (Edgardo) Alfonzo was going to try to bunt him over. Not to knock anyone, but we knew who was coming up behind him."

That would be Deivi Cruz, Neifi Perez and Yorvit Torrealba - not exactly Murderers Row. They had combined for zero homers this year and have 556 fewer career homers than Bonds.

But Alfonzo screwed up the Reds' plan.

He tried to sacrifice Bonds to second on closer Danny Graves' first two pitches and failed. He then laced a double to left.

"What hurt us was Alfonzo not getting the bunt down," Miley said. "If he gets it down, we probably get out of the inning."

Said Graves: "I made some good pitches to Alfonzo. But he was able to get it by third."

Cruz followed with a fly ball to right that was plenty deep enough to score Bonds.

Graves knew he was going to walk Bonds before he left he dugout.

"It's a manager's decision," Graves said. "Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn't."

In the Reds' case, it didn't work twice. Friday night, the Reds walked Bonds with two outs in the seventh, and Pedro Feliz followed with a home run that turned the game, and the Giants won 6-1.

Maybe the baseball gods were on the Giants' side. Coming into this series with the Reds, the hitter behind Bonds after an intentional walk was hitting .130 (3-for-23) with one extra-base it. Against the Reds, they were 2-for-2 with a home run and a double.

The Reds lost two of three to the Giants in the series. It's the first time this season they have lost a home series. Sunday's game was one that got away.

"We should have won that game, bottom line," Sean Casey said. "There's no way to sugarcoat it."

He was talking about the three errors that led to three unearned runs. Third baseman Juan Castro, the Reds' best defensive player, made two errors.

"You're not going to see that too often," Casey said. "He's one of the best I've ever played with."

The Reds came back from being down 2-0, 4-2, 5-4 and 6-5 to push the game to extra innings.

Right-hander Todd Van Poppel went four innings in his first start. He gave up a two-run homer to Grissom in the first and then allowed only one more hit.

"I felt like I could make adjustments and still get guys out," Van Poppel said. "But they had me on a pitch count."

Van Poppel threw 78 pitches. With today's off day, Miley knew he could get a lot out of his bullpen.

The Reds scored a run in the first when former Red Brett Tomko walked three straight to force in Barry Larkin, who had singled.

The Giants went ahead 4-1 with two unearned runs in the sixth. But the Reds answered when Jacob Cruz singled in a run, and Castro doubled home two more.

The Giants scored another unearned run in the seventh.

But Casey tied it up again in the Reds' half of the inning with his fourth home run of the year.

The Giants went up again with a run in the ninth.

It looked like the Reds might win it walk-off style.

Castro and pinch-hitter Adam Dunn started the ninth with singles off closer Matt Herges. After D'Angelo Jimenez sacrificed them over, Barry Larkin tied it at 6 with a sacrifice fly.

The Giants walked Casey to get to Ken Griffey Jr. and brought in left-hander Jason Christiansen to face Griffey, who walked, loading the bases.

Former Red Jim Brower was brought in to face Ryan Freel, who got ahead 2-0, took a strike and then grounded out.

By then, the decision to walk Bonds had been made.

San Francisco	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Tucker rf	4	0	1	0	0	0	.272
Snow 1b	4	1	1	2	0	0	.213
Grissom cf	5	2	2	2	0	1	.342
Bonds lf	4	2	0	0	1	1	.379
Alfonzo 3b	5	0	3	1	0	1	.253
DCruz ss	3	0	0	1	1	0	.278
NPerez 2b	4	0	0	1	0	0	.221
Torrealba c	3	1	0	0	2	1	.200
Tomko p	1	0	0	0	1	0	.063
Mohr ph	1	1	1	0	0	0	.161
Eyre p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
FRodriguez p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Feliz ph	1	0	1	0	0	0	.297
Herges p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Christiansen p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Brower p	1	0	0	0	0	1	.500
Totals	36	7	9	7	5	5

Cincinnati	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
DJimenez 2b	4	0	0	0	0	0	.212
Larkin ss	4	1	1	1	0	1	.304
Casey 1b	4	2	2	1	1	1	.376
Griffey Jr. cf	3	0	0	0	2	2	.241
Freel lf-rf	4	0	0	0	1	1	.256
JaCruz rf	3	1	1	2	1	1	.318
Graves p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
WPena ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.195
Valentin c	5	1	1	0	0	0	.163
JCastro 3b	5	1	3	2	0	0	.268
Van Poppel p	1	0	0	0	0	1	.250
RWagner p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Romano ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.071
Riedling p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Hummel ph	1	0	0	0	0	1	.000
PNorton p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
TJones p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Dunn lf	1	0	1	0	0	0	.286
Totals	37	6	9	6	5	8

San Francisco	200	002	101	1	-7	9	0
Cincinnati	100	003	101	0	-6	9	3

E-DJimenez (3), JCastro 2 (3). LOB-San Francisco 8, Cincinnati 8. 2B-Alfonzo (6), JCastro (3). HR-Casey (4), off Eyre; Grissom (5), off Van Poppel. RBIs-Snow 2 (9), Grissom 2 (20), Alfonzo (8), DCruz (2), NPerez (13), Larkin (9), Casey (24), JaCruz 2 (4), JCastro 2 (8). S-Tucker, DJimenez. SF-Snow, DCruz, NPerez, Larkin. GIDP-Tucker.

Runners left in scoring position-San Francisco 4 (Grissom, NPerez, Torrealba, Brower); Cincinnati 6 (Freel 2, Valentin 2, Hummel).

Runners moved up-NPerez.

DP-Cincinnati 1 (Larkin and Casey).

San Francisco	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Tomko	6	6	4	4	3	5	104	6.23
Eyre BS, 1	1	1	1	1	0	2	21	4.05
FRodriguez	1	0	0	0	0	1	14	2.60
Herges BS,2	2/3	2	1	1	1	0	16	6.23
Christiansen	0	0	0	0	1	0	5	2.16
Brower W,1-2	1 1/3	0	0	0	0	0	9	3.22

Cincinnati	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Van Poppel	4	3	2	2	2	3	75	4.50
RWagner	1	0	0	0	0	0	10	8.44
Riedling	1	2	2	0	0	0	20	0.56
PNorton	1	1	1	0	0	1	14	5.56
TJones	1 1/3	1	1	1	1	0	29	5.50
Graves L, 1-3	1 2/3	2	1	1	2	1	27	3.44

Christiansen pitched to 1 batter in the 9th. IBB-off Graves (Torrealba) 1, off Graves (Bonds) 1, off Herges (Casey) 1. WP-Tomko 2.T-3:29. A-30,204 (42,271).

Umpires-Home, James Hoye; First, Jerry Crawford; Second, Darren Spagnardi; Third, Phil Cuzzi.