By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer

PHOTO GALLERY

Photo gallery from game.

It might embarrass him, but you can go ahead and call Paul Wilson an ace.

Wilson, who generally attributes his success to a combination of defense and luck, pitched eight outstanding innings to lift the Reds to a 3-1 victory over the Colorado Rockies before a crowd of 21,576 at Great American Ball Park on Thursday.

"He was unbelievable," catcher Jason LaRue said. "He kept the ball down, mixed speeds. He just pitched a great game."

Wilson allowed the one run on three hits to the best-hitting team in the National League. He improved to 6-0, the best season start by a Reds starter since Mike LaCoss went 8-0 in 1979.

Wilson, a 30-year-old right-hander, struck out six and walked none. He threw only 89 pitches, so he easily could have finished this one, but he deferred to his friend Danny Graves, allowing Graves to pass John Franco and move into first place on the Reds' all-time saves list with 149.

"After the eighth, I told (pitching coach Don Gullett) to give it to Gravy," Wilson said. "I never do that. But I wanted Gravy to get the record on my night."

Wilson has won each of his last three starts, allowing three runs and 15 hits in 22 innings (1.23 ERA).

Shortstop Barry Larkin and second baseman D'Angelo Jimenez made great plays behind Wilson on Thursday.

"That's as good of defense as we've played all year," Reds manager Dave Miley said.

The victory - in the Reds' fastest game of the season at 1 hour, 56 minutes - allowed the Reds to take the series, two games to one, and move four games over .500 (22-18) for the first time since April 27.

"It's a big lift for us," Wilson said. "That's an unbelievable hitting ballclub over there. They got some good pitching. But we did what we had to do."

It sets the Reds up nicely for the four-game series that opens tonight against the National League Central-leading Houston Astros. The Astros lost to the Florida Marlins 6-2 Thursday, so they come to town with just a two-game lead on the Reds.

Vinny Castilla got the Rockies on the board in the fourth inning with his 12th home run of the year and second in as many nights.

No other Rockies got past first base. But the 1-0 lead looked fairly large at that point, given the way Colorado left-hander Joe Kennedy was throwing.

Larkin (walk in the first) was the Reds' only baserunner through five innings.

Kennedy, 24, is the rare pitcher whose career got a huge boost after coming to Colorado. The Rockies obtained him from the Tampa Bay Devils Rays in a three-way trade with the Astros. Kennedy was 3-12 last year with the Rays. He won his fourth game May 5.

The game changed in the sixth. Larkin went into shallow left to field a ball hit into the hole by Royce Clayton and got him at first with a rainbow throw. It was Larkin circa 1994.

"Baseball is a game of momentum," Wilson said. "That was a huge momentum swing there."

Especially when LaRue led off the Reds' half of the sixth with a single to right field.

Wilson was sent up to bunt. But when he overheard first baseman Todd Helton say he was going to charge, Wilson swung away.

"You can't signal for that," Miley said. "Paul did what he was supposed to do. It's easy to bunt into a double play in that situation. He's got to react to it."

Wilson's half-swing got the ball past second base for a single.

The Reds had Freel try to bunt the runners over, but Miley called it off when Freel fell behind 1-2. So Freel bunted on his own.

"I'm still confident I can get it down," he said.

It wasn't a great bunt, but Kennedy dropped the ball as he tried to field it. With Freel's speed, that's trouble. Kennedy rushed the throw, and it got by Helton. LaRue scored on the hit and error.

Larkin followed with a sacrifice fly to center, and Freel moved to third. That forced the Rockies to play the infield in, and Sean Casey grounded one past Helton to push the Reds' lead to 3-1.

The Rockies didn't threaten after that.

Wilson, of course, spread the credit around.

"I can't say enough about the defense - Lark, Jimenez," he said. "We battled. I'm proud of everyone."

E-mail jfay@enquirer.com

Colorado	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Hocking 2b	4	0	0	0	0	1	.197
Clayton ss	4	0	0	0	0	1	.299
Helton 1b	4	0	1	0	0	0	.322
Castilla 3b	3	1	1	1	0	0	.320
Burnitz cf	3	0	0	0	0	0	.297
Holliday lf	3	0	0	0	0	3	.299
Hawpe rf	3	0	0	0	0	1	.326
CJohnson c	3	0	0	0	0	0	.267
JKennedy p	2	0	1	0	0	0	.235
LuGonzalez ph	1	0	0	0	0	1	.250
SReed p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Totals	30	1	3	1	0	7

Cincinnati	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Freel 3b	4	1	1	0	0	1	.263
Graves p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Larkin ss	2	0	0	1	1	0	.277
Casey 1b	4	0	1	1	0	2	.364
Griffey Jr. cf	3	0	0	0	0	1	.230
Kearns rf	3	0	1	0	0	1	.140
Dunn lf	3	0	0	0	0	2	.290
DJimenez 2b	3	0	0	0	0	0	.225
LaRue c	2	1	1	0	0	0	.211
PWilson p	3	1	1	0	0	2	.150
JCastro 3b	0	0	0	0	0	0	.254
Totals	27	3	5	2	1	9

Colorado	000	100	000	-1	3	1
Cincinnati	000	003	00x	-3	5	0

E-JKennedy (1). LOB-Colorado 2, Cincinnati 3. HR-Castilla (12), off PWilson. RBIs-Castilla (39), Larkin (13), Casey (28). SF-Larkin. GIDP-Griffey Jr. DP-Colorado 1.

Colorado	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
JKennedy L, 4-2	7	5	3	2	1	9	89	2.82
SReed	1	0	0	0	0	0	7	1.59

Cincinnati	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
PWilson W, 6-0	8	3	1	1	0	6	90	3.59
Graves S, 18	1	0	0	0	0	1	10	3.00

HBP-by JKennedy (LaRue). PB-CJohnson.

Umpires-Home, Doug Eddings; First, Dan Iassogna; Second, Charlie Reliford; Third, Jeff Kellogg.

T-1:56. A-21,576 (42,271).