By John Erardi
The Cincinnati Enquirer

It takes one to know one.

"I don't think many pitchers want to pitch against us," said Reds starter Cory Lidle, speaking of the Reds' lineup.

The Reds banged out 12 hits for the second straight day Sunday, and (again) made most of them count, something this team has begun to do only recently.

Say what you want about the starting pitching - and it was magnificent Sunday, with Lidle throwing a six-hit shutout - one has to believe that when it comes to playing with the big boys in this division, it is the potential of the Reds' hitting corps that concerns opposing pitchers and managers.

"You saw up there on the Jumbotron what our record is when we've got those three guys starting out there in the outfield," Reds manager Dave Miley said. "That's not just a coincidence."

The Reds are 14-4 this year when their starting outfield is Ken Griffey Jr., Adam Dunn and Austin Kearns, who is beginning to make his presence felt (two hits and two RBI for the second straight game).

"I like to think I'm not just taking up a spot out there," said Kearns, grinning.

The pundits love taking statistical snapshots of a group of players to try to determine future value. That can be as wacky a way of prognosticating as trying to figure out the stock market. By and large, the players themselves regard it as maddening, but they play along.

"It's overrated," said Kearns, speaking of the viability of the projection game. "You come out here as a team and play 162 games. Statistics tell some of the story, but not a lot of it. We (the players) don't read too much into that."

As Kearns noted, the early season has been a lot of Sean Casey, Dunn and Barry Larkin, and Griffey has had his moments. The beauty of the Reds' lineup is that a lot of guys can launch, and as a group they simply can't be as bad in the clutch as their numbers entering Sunday's game (.226 with runners in scoring position).

Larkin gives a lot of credit to Reds manager Dave Miley.

"His way of doing things promotes a consistent atmosphere," Larkin said. "Guys are more relaxed because they know what to expect. You don't have a Ryan Freel not knowing if he's going to play. Same for D'Angelo Jimenez. Juan Castro knows days in advance what is happening. It promotes a situation where a guy can be successful because a manager is consistent with them and they can in turn prepare themselves."

Larkin said no one hitter has to carry the load on this team.

"Javier Valentin comes up with some big home runs here and there, Jimenez wins the game the other day with four hits," Larkin said. "He's hitting sixth or seventh in the lineup, where normally he's hitting first. Miley - once again - knows he's going to get some different situations than leading off. He's stayed there, and not jockeying back and forth. Miley is very consistent."