By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer

LOS ANGELES - Paul Wilson was disappointed when he didn't earn the right to be the Reds' Opening Day starter.

Wilson may not have started until Game 2, but he's done the Reds' best imitation of a No. 1 starter since.

PHOTO GALLERY

Photos of Friday's game

Wilson beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 2-1 before a sellout crowd of 53,647 at Dodger Stadium on a night when the Reds offense managed only three hits.

Wilson raised his record to 5-0 and lowered his ERA to 3.99. He is the first Reds' starter to begin the season 5-0 since Denny Neagle did it in 2000.

Four of his five wins have come after Reds' losses.

Wilson was not overpowering. He struck out four, walked two and gave up five hits. But, in the pitcher parlance, he made big pitches when he had to.

"He was unbelievable," catcher Jason LaRue said. "All his pitches were working. He kept the ball down. When you do that, you're going to win about 100 percent of the time."

Wilson had to pitch well to win. The Reds pounded out all of three singles. But they scored runs in the fourth on a bases-loaded walked and a sacrifice fly.

"You don't see that very often," Reds manager Dave Miley said. "Obviously, Willie pitched a hell of a game."

Wilson deferred the credit.

"I had great defense behind me," he said. "I attacked guys when I had to."

Wilson made the lead stand up through the seventh. Todd Jones pitched the eighth, and Danny Graves finished it for his 15th save.

Wilson has gone 14 innings in last two outings and allowed a total of three runs.

Wilson only allowed one run total in his first two starts. He then had four so-so starts. Stiffness in his lower back may have had more to do with that than the Reds let on.

"We're treating it," he said. "We're doing whatever we can to calm it down. My hips and everything were tight. That threw me off. But we've got a good handle on it."

The win kept the Reds (18-17) from dipping under .500 for the first time since they were 0-1.

Los Angeles' Kazuhisa Ishii was wild from the start. How wild? This wild: He walked seven in four innings and left after allowing only one hit.

Ishii, who came in with 4-1 record, managed to walk four in the first without allowing a run.

"Don't think that wasn't talked about in the dugout," Miley said.

Ishii walked Ryan Freel to start the game. Then, after Barry Larkin hit into a double play, Ishii walked Ken Griffey Jr., Adam Dunn and Jason LaRue to load the bases.

But D'Angelo Jimenez popped foul to first to leave the bases loaded.

Ishii retired the Reds 1-2-3 in the second and third, then went back to his wild ways.

Adam Dunn led off the fourth with a single. LaRue and Jimenez walked to load the bases. That brought up Wily Mo Pena, who was only in the lineup because Sean Casey was a late scratch with a sore thumb, was hitless in his last 17 at-bats and had struck out on three pitches in the second inning.

Ishii walked him on five pitches to force in a run. Tim Hummel followed with a sacrifice fly that scored LaRue to make it 2-0.

"It was a full count," Hummel said. "I didn't know what he was going to throw. I think it was a fastball. I was able to get it in the air."

Wilson bunted Pena over. Freel followed with a sinking liner to right that Shawn Green caught to end the inning.

Wilson got into a bit of trouble in the first. He gave up a one-out double to Cesar Izturis and walked Milton Bradley, but he got Green to hit into a double play to escape.

Wilson allowed only one other hit through five - Izturis' two-out single in the third.

The Dodgers broke through in the sixth. Jason Grabowski led off with a double. Izturis got him home with his third hit of the night.

Wilson got the heart of the lineup - Bradley, Green and Adrian Beltre - on two groundouts and a strikeout.

Paul Lo Duca led off the seventh with a rope down the line in left. Freel got over quickly to cut it off and held him to a single.

"That was the key play of the game," Wilson said. "A leadoff double there is tough to deal with. Freel made a great play."

Jones replaced Wilson. He got two routine outs. Bradley then singled. That brought up Green. With the crowd of 53,647 standing and waving the white Green t-shirts that were given away, Jones induced Green to ground out.

Graves worked a perfect ninth - his fourth 1-2-3 save of the 15.

Cincinnati	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Freel lf-rf	3	0	0	0	1	0	.248
Larkin ss	3	0	1	0	1	1	.297
Griffey Jr. cf	3	0	0	0	1	1	.231
Dunn 1b-lf	2	1	1	0	2	0	.298
LaRue c	2	1	0	0	2	1	.203
DJimenez 2b	3	0	0	0	1	2	.195
WPena rf	2	0	0	1	1	2	.182
JCastro 3b	1	0	0	0	0	1	.254
Hummel 3b-1b	3	0	1	1	0	0	.333
PWilson p	2	0	0	0	0	0	.118
TJones p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
JaCruz ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.280
Graves p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Totals	25	2	3	2	9	8

Los Angeles	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Grabowski lf	3	1	1	0	1	0	.209
Izturis ss	4	0	3	1	0	0	.280
Bradley cf	3	0	1	0	1	0	.254
ShGreen rf	4	0	0	0	0	0	.236
Beltre 3b	4	0	0	0	0	1	.368
Lo Duca c	4	0	1	0	0	0	.381
Ventura 1b	4	0	0	0	0	0	.281
Cora 2b	3	0	0	0	0	1	.283
Ishii p	1	0	0	0	0	0	.133
Falkenborg p	1	0	0	0	0	1	.000
TMartin p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Saenz ph	1	0	0	0	0	1	.231
Mota p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Totals	32	1	6	1	2	4

Cincinnati	000	200	000	-2	3	0
Los Angeles	000	001	000	-1	6	0

LOB-Cincinnati 8, Los Angeles 6. 2B-Grabowski (2), Izturis (4). RBIs-WPena (5), Hummel (3), Izturis (10). SB-Freel 2 (7). S-PWilson. SF-Hummel. GIDP-Larkin, Griffey Jr., LaRue, ShGreen.

Runners left in scoring position-Cincinnati 4 (Freel 2, DJimenez 2); Los Angeles 2 (Bradley, Beltre).

Runners moved up-Bradley, ShGreen.

DP-Cincinnati 1 (DJimenez, Larkin and Dunn); Los Angeles 3 (Izturis, Cora and Ventura), (Beltre, Cora and Ventura), (Beltre, Izturis and Ventura).

Cincinnati	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
PWilson W, 5-0	7	5	1	1	2	4	95	3.99
TJones H, 12	1	1	0	0	0	0	20	4.95
Graves S, 15	1	0	0	0	0	0	5	3.10

Los Angeles	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Ishii L, 5-2	4	1	2	2	7	2	82	3.83
Falkenborg	2 1/3	1	0	0	2	3	40	1.35
TMartin	2/3	0	0	0	0	0	2	4.15
Mota	2	1	0	0	0	3	32	1.37

Inherited runners-scored-TMartin 2-0.

HBP-by Falkenborg (Freel).

Umpires-Home, Alfonso Marquez; First, Rick Reed; Second, Ed Rapuano; Third, Ted Barrett.

T-2:49. A-53,647 (56,000).