By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer

PHOTO GALLERY

Austin Kearns walks in the first vs. the Rockies. Photo gallery from game.

It wasn't how it should have gone. But the Reds are probably thinking: A win is a win is a win.

They did it the hard way Wednesday. D'Angelo Jimenez's single to right field drove in the winning run in the 10th as the Reds beat the Colorado Rockies 4-3 before what was left of a crowd of 16,410 at Great American Ball Park.

"There's no better feeling in baseball," Jimenez said.

There would have been no worse feeling had the Reds not won. They blew a 3-0 lead in the eighth.

"To come back and win this one is nice," outfielder Austin Kearns said. "We were cruising along there. Jose (Acevedo) was pitching great. They kind of caught us off guard."

Acevedo pitched seven shutout innings and struck out a career-high 11.

Fortunately for the Reds, after spinning their wheels offensively for six innings, they got going in 10th.

Sean Casey led off with a single to left off left-hander Brian Fuentes.

Ken Griffey Jr. lined weakly to third. That brought up Kearns, fresh up from a rehab stint in Louisville. Kearns, 0-for-3 on the night, fell behind 1-2, then worked it to 3-2. He fouled off two pitches before walking on the 10th pitch of the at-bat.

"I was just battling," Kearns said. "I was trying to get on any way I could."

Adam Dunn, the next hitter, was hit by the first pitch to load the bases.

"Dunn more or less took one for the team," Reds manager Dave Miley said.

With the infield drawn in, Jimenez grounded the second pitch into right for his fourth hit of the game, scoring Casey.

"I was looking to make hard contact," Jimenez said. "The defense was in. I tried to elevate it. I found a hole."

Todd Jones and Danny Graves owe Jimenez and Co. a debt of gratitude. In the course of two pitches, Jones and Graves ruined a perfectly good start by Acevedo and blew a 3-0 lead.

Graves pitched a scoreless ninth and John Riedling went 1-2-3 in the 10th to set up the ending.

Acevedo had pitched the best game of his Reds career.

"We win as a team, we lose as team," Acevedo said.

But it all blew up in the eighth. Jones gave up a two-out, two-run homer to Vinny Castilla. The Reds brought in Graves. Jeromy Burnitz homered on the first pitch Graves threw to tie it. It was the seventh home run Graves has given up in 23 innings this year.

The blown save was Graves' fourth of the year - the most of any closer in the majors. It was his first appearance in the eighth inning.

Had Graves gotten the four outs to close it, it would have been the 149th save of his career, pushing him past John Franco for first on the Reds' all-time list.

Acevedo was coming off an 8-2 loss in San Diego in which he allowed seven earned runs in five innings but pitched well. Four or five of the runs in that were directly linked to bad defensive decisions.

Acevedo didn't rely as much on his defense Wednesday. His 11 strikeouts were the most by a Red since Ron Villone struck out 16 on Sept. 29, 2000 at St. Louis. Acevedo did not walk a batter.

He threw 90 pitches, 62 strikes.

"He was outstanding," Miley said. "You can't say enough abut what he did. He only had 90 pitches, but he threw 25 at full bore during the rain delay (in the second inning), so even though the board said 90, he threw 115."

The game was delayed by rain for one hour and 12 minutes in the second inning.

After the delay, Ryan Freel drove in a run in the second with a ground out. After Barry Larkin walked, Casey singled to center to score LaRue and make it 2-0.

The Reds added one in the third. With one out, Dunn and Jimenez hit back-to-back doubles.

Colorado	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
LuGonzalez 2b	5	0	0	0	0	2	.253
Clayton ss	4	1	2	0	1	1	.307
Helton 1b	5	0	2	0	0	1	.324
Castilla 3b	4	1	1	2	0	2	.320
Burnitz cf	4	1	1	1	0	1	.304
Holliday lf	3	0	0	0	0	3	.308
Harikkala p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Fuentes p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
CJohnson c	4	0	0	0	0	1	.275
Hawpe rf	4	0	1	0	0	1	.349
JJennings p	2	0	0	0	0	1	.167
MaSweeney ph	1	0	0	0	0	1	.275
VNunez p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Fassero p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.500
Hocking lf	1	0	0	0	0	1	.211
Totals	37	3	7	3	1	15

Cincinnati	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Freel 3b	4	0	0	1	0	0	.264
TJones p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Graves p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
b-JaCruz ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.233
Riedling p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Larkin ss	3	0	0	0	2	1	.281
Casey 1b	5	1	2	1	0	0	.367
Griffey Jr. cf	4	0	0	0	1	1	.235
Kearns rf	3	0	0	0	2	1	.130
Dunn lf	4	1	2	0	0	1	.298
DJimenez 2b	5	1	4	2	0	0	.230
LaRue c	3	1	1	0	1	1	.203
JoAcevedo p	2	0	0	0	0	1	.143
JCastro 3b	1	0	0	0	0	0	.254
Totals	35	4	9	4	6	6

Colorado	000	000	030	0	-3	7	0
Cincinnati	021	000	000	1	-4	9	0

One out when winning run scored.

LOB-Colorado 6, Cincinnati 11. 2B-Helton 2 (14), Hawpe (1), Dunn (7), DJimenez (8). HR-Burnitz (13), off Graves; Castilla (11), off TJones. RBIs-Castilla 2 (38), Burnitz (32), Freel (7), Casey (27), DJimenez 2 (16). CS-DJimenez (3). S-JoAcevedo.

Colorado	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
JJennings	6	5	3	3	5	5	126	8.50
VNunez	1	0	0	0	0	0	13	6.98
Fassero	2/3	2	0	0	0	0	15	5.56
Harikkala	1 1/3	00	0	0	1	29	2.57
Fuentes L, 1-1	1/3	2	1	1	1	0	22	2.60

Cincinnati	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
JoAcevedo	7	5	0	0	0	11	90	4.72
TJones H, 13	2/3	1	2	2	1	0	20	5.24
Graves BS, 4	1 1/3	1	1	1	0	3	22	3.13
Riedling W, 2-0	1	0	0	0	0	1	11	0.45

Inherited runners-scored-Harikkala 2-0.

HBP-by Fuentes (Dunn), by JoAcevedo (Holliday). WP-TJones.

Umpires-Home, Marvin Hudson; First, Dana DeMuth; Second, Jim Joyce; Third, Kerwin Danley.

T-3:13. A-16,410 (42,271).