By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Tim Hummel (60) is tagged out by Padres third baseman Sean Burroughs while trying to advance on a sacrifice bunt by Reds pitcher Cory Lidle. The Associated Press

SAN DIEGO - Along with no crying, there are no mulligans in baseball.

So Cory Lidle could not take back the one pitch he would have liked to Wednesday night.

Lidle's first pitch to Brian Giles in the first inning was the difference between victory and defeat for Lidle and the Reds.

Giles hit the pitch out, accounting for all the San Diego Padres' scoring in their 2-1 victory over the Reds before a crowd of 27,559 at PETCO Park.

Lidle allowed only six hits and walked one on the night. He needed only 85 pitches to go eight innings.

Lidle was coming off what was in a lot of ways his best start as a Red. He had a one-hit shutout with two outs in the seventh and nobody on base Friday against San Francisco. He then was ordered to intentionally walk Barry Bonds. Pedro Feliz followed with a home run. Lidle, who said the intentional walk broke his rhythm, ended up giving up four more runs in the eighth.

Lidle was in a rhythm Wednesday night.

He gave up a one-out double to Mark Loretta in the first. That wasn't a good thing given Giles' record against Lidle.

Giles was 5-for-6 with two home runs off Lidle entering the at-bat.

One pitch later, he was 6-for-7 with three home runs.

Giles' sixth home run of the year landed three or four rows into the seats above right field and gave the Padres a 2-0 lead.

Lidle did a fantastic job of keeping it at 2-0 in the second. Jay Payton led off with a drive that right fielder Ryan Freel took a bad angle on. The ball went to the wall, and Payton had a triple.

He stayed right there. Lidle got Ramon Hernandez, Khalil Greene and Brian Lawrence all to harmlessly fly out.

The Reds cut the lead to one in the fourth. Sean Casey and Adam Dunn singled. Freel got Casey in with a single up the middle.

Lidle hurt his own cause in the fifth. Tim Hummel led off with a double. Lidle tried to bunt him over but he bunted the ball a bit too hard. First baseman Phil Nevin fielded it and threw to third to get Hummel.

On the mound, however, Lidle was rolling. After Payton's triple, he retired the next 15 batters.

Lidle was doing by adhering to the Reds' mandate to throw strikes. Through the sixth inning, he had thrown only 61 pitches - all but 13 were strikes.

The Reds had more success off San Diego starter Brian Lawrence - seven hits in six innings. But other than Freel's fourth inning single, they didn't have a big hit. They were 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position.

Nevin finally broke Lidle's spell with a double off the left-field fence to lead off the seventh.

He was thrown out trying to advance to third on Ryan Klesko's grounder to shortstop Barry Larkin. Payton followed with a walk. But Klesko was thrown out on the front end of a double steal by catcher Javier Valentin. Valentin has thrown out six of the eight runners who have attempted to steal on him.

After Lawrence left, the Padres' bullpen was dominant. Scott Linebrink, Akinori Otsuka and Trevor Hoffman allowed only two hits over the last three innings.

Cincinnati	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
DJimenez 2b	4	0	0	0	0	0	.197
Larkin ss	4	0	0	0	0	2	.292
Casey 1b	4	1	1	0	0	0	.366
Griffey Jr. cf	3	0	1	0	1	2	.246
Dunn lf	4	0	1	0	0	1	.296
Freel rf	4	0	2	1	0	0	.258
Valentin c	4	0	1	0	0	0	.176
Hummel 3b	4	0	2	0	0	0	.333
Romano pr	0	0	0	0	0	0	.071
Lidle p	3	0	1	0	0	1	.167
JaCruz ph	1	0	0	0	0	1	.292
Totals	35	1	9	1	1	7

San Diego	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Burroughs 3b	4	0	1	0	0	0	.333
Loretta 2b	4	1	1	0	0	0	.321
BGiles rf	3	1	1	2	0	0	.262
Nevin 1b	3	0	1	0	0	1	.263
Klesko lf	3	0	0	0	0	1	.266
Otsuka p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Hoffman p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Payton cf	2	0	1	0	1	0	.282
RaHernandez c	3	0	0	0	0	1	.225
Greene ss	3	0	1	0	0	0	.283
Lawrence p	2	0	0	0	0	1	.286
Linebrink p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Long lf	1	0	0	0	0	0	.321
Totals	28	2	6	2	1	4

Cincinnati	000	100	000	-1	9	0
San Diego	200	000	00x	-2	6	1

E-Burroughs (5). LOB-Cincinnati 8, San Diego 3. 2B-Hummel (1), Loretta (10), Nevin (7). 3B-Payton (1). HR-BGiles (6), off Lidle. RBIs-Freel (6), BGiles 2 (20). CS-Klesko (2). GIDP-DJimenez, Long.

DP-Cincinnati 1 (Lidle, Larkin and Casey); San Diego 2 (Loretta and Nevin), (Loretta, Greene and Nevin).

Cincinnati	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Lidle L, 2-3	8	6	2	2	1	4	85	4.70

San Diego	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Lawrence W, 5-2	6	7	1	1	1	4	103	4.57
Linebrink H, 7	1	1	0	0	0	0	12	1.33
Otsuka H, 8	1	0	0	0	0	2	9	1.00
Hoffman S, 10	1	1	0	0	0	1	15	1.38

T-2:15. A-27,559 (42,445).