By Kevin Kelly
Enquirer staff writer

ST. LOUIS - The explanations came from all corners of the Reds clubhouse. Relief pitchers. Starting pitchers. Infielders. Outfielders.

All contributed to a forgettable 9-2 loss against the Cardinals on Saturday night before a sellout crowd of 48,641 at Busch Stadium.

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St. Louis scored all nine runs in their final three at-bats and sent Cincinnati to its ninth consecutive road loss.

The Reds trail the Cardinals by four games in the National League Central Division.

"It just sucks for us," Reds relief pitcher Phil Norton said. "It's just how things go."

Four plays keyed the Cardinals' comeback from a 2-0 deficit, and ruined the Reds' evening.

Starting pitcher Jose Acevedo gave up a three-run home run to Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols in the seventh inning. The home run gave St. Louis a 4-2 lead.

Acevedo allowed four earned runs on a season-high 11 hits for his sixth loss of the season.

Things got much worse after the seventh as the Cardinals scored five more times in the eighth.

Norton walked the leadoff batter and got Edgar Renteria to hit a ground ball to the left side of the infield.

Reds shortstop Felipe Lopez stretched to catch the grounder, a potential double play ball, but the ball bounced off the heel of his glove.

"He hit it deep in the hole," Lopez said, , "and it took a bad hop."

A sacrifice bunt followed by a fielder's choice and intentional walk brought up Cardinals closer Jason Isringhausen.

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In his first at-bat of the season, Isringhausen hit a high and outside pitch into right field that scored two runs.

"It wasn't even a strike," Norton said. "It was one of those things where he's swinging and got the good part of the bat on the ball."

Norton walked the next batter to load the bases.

"That obviously was a big hit that got to the heart of their lineup," Reds manager Dave Miley said.

Cardinals third baseman Scott Rolen followed with a bases-clearing triple.

Reds left fielder Adam Dunn did not react at first to the hit and later said he lost the ball in the evening sky.

The ball bounced off the outfield wall and scored three more runs to give St. Louis a 9-2 lead.

"I saw it pop up," Dunn said, "and I had no idea where it was until it almost hit me on the head."

Those three innings negated an otherwise sharply played ballgame by the Reds.

Cincinnati took a 1-0 lead in the third inning as Woody Williams labored to find the strike zone and, at times, his catcher's glove.

Not until the sixth inning, when catcher Jason LaRue hit a solo home run, did another Reds player touch home plate.

Cincinnati scored its first run with Williams' help.

Second baseman Jermaine Clark led off the inning by taking a pitch off his left elbow and went to second on a wild pitch.

Two batters later, and with Clark in scoring position, Williams hit Reds first baseman Sean Casey on the left knee.

Casey jogged off to first base as Ken Griffey Jr. walked to the batter's box for his first at-bat.

Stalled at 499 career home runs since his homer off Indians pitcher Cliff Lee on June 13 - Lee was suspended for six games Saturday after throwing at Griffey's head in the following at-bat that game - Griffey swung at the first pitch from Williams.

The single up the middle scored Clark and put the Reds ahead 1-0.

The hit was Griffey's first in nine at-bats while the RBI was his 52nd of the season, three more than he had in the 2002 and 2003 combined. Griffey finished 2-for-3.

Williams finished the inning, and avoided further damage, by striking out Adam Dunn looking.

The Reds left runners in scoring position in three of the first four innings.

Acevedo allowed leadoff singles in four of his first five scoreless innings.

The Reds defense helped as much as timely strikes to avoid any Cardinals runs until the sixth.

"(Acevedo) did a heck of a job," Miley said. "Obviously we didn't have a lot of hits. We come up with a hit here or there it could be a whole different scenario."

Cincinnati	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
JClark 2b	4	1	0	0	0	0	.111
FLopez ss	4	0	0	0	0	2	.156
Casey 1b	3	0	1	0	0	0	.362
Griffey Jr. cf	3	0	2	1	1	0	.259
Dunn lf	4	0	0	0	0	2	.259
JaCruz rf	3	0	0	0	0	0	.266
WPena ph-rf	1	0	0	0	0	0	.278
LaRue c	4	1	1	1	0	0	.224
Larson 3b	3	0	1	0	1	1	.222
JoAcevedo p	2	0	0	0	1	1	.083
PNorton p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
GWhite p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
DJimenez ph	1	0	0	0	0	1	.254
Totals	32	2	5	2	3	7

St. Louis	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Womack 2b	4	2	2	0	1	0	.306
Lankford lf	4	1	2	0	0	1	.270
Kline p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Isringhausen p	1	1	1	2	0	0	1.000
Pujols 1b	3	2	1	3	2	0	.310
Rolen 3b	5	0	1	3	0	0	.344
Edmonds cf	4	1	3	1	0	1	.278
Luna ph-cf	1	0	0	0	0	0	.246
Mabry rf-lf	3	0	0	0	1	0	.324
Renteria ss	4	1	3	0	0	0	.280
YMolina c	2	0	0	0	1	0	.216
WWilliams p	2	0	1	0	0	1	.160
Cedeno ph-rf	2	1	0	0	0	0	.304
Totals	35	9	14	9	5	3

Cincinnati	001	001	000	-2	5	0
St. Louis	000	001	35x	-9	14	0

a-flied out for Williams in the 7th. b-grounded out for Cruz in the 8th. c-grounded out for Edmonds in the 8th. d-struck out for White in the 9th.

LOB-Cincinnati 8, St. Louis 8. 2B-Casey (26), Lankford (12). 3B-Rolen (3). HR-Pujols (19), off JoAcevedo; Edmonds (15), off JoAcevedo; LaRue (6), off WWilliams. RBIs-Griffey Jr. (52), LaRue (21), Isringhausen 2 (2), Pujols 3 (48), Rolen 3 (70), Edmonds (47). S-YMolina. GIDP-Mabry.

Runners left in scoring position-Cincinnati 3 (JClark, Dunn 2); St. Louis 5 (Rolen 2, Luna, WWilliams 2).

Runners moved up-FLopez.

DP-Cincinnati 1 (Casey, FLopez and Casey).

Cincinnati	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
JoAcevedo L, 3-6	7	11	4	4	2	3	94	5.31
PNorton	2/3	3	5	5	3	0	29	5.86
GWhite	1/3	0	0	0	0	0	1	0.00

St. Louis	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
WWilliams W, 5-6	7	4	2	2	3	5	108	4.66
Kline H, 8	2/3	0	0	0	0	1	8	2.59
Isringhausen S, 15	1 1/3	1	0	0	0	1	17	3.41

Inherited runners-scored-GWhite 1-0.

IBB-off PNorton (Womack) 1. HBP-by WWilliams (Casey), by WWilliams (JClark). WP-WWilliams 2.

Umpires-Home, Mark Carlson; First, Brian Runge; Second, Bill Hohn; Third, Gary Darling.

T-2:40. A-48,641 (50,345).