Fielding a lineup that was equal parts desperation and wishful thinking, the Reds did enough Thursday to keep the 31,633 in the park leaning up in their seats. Next to cranking out bobbleheads by the millions, playing resourceful, never-say-uncle baseball is what this team does best.

Too bad you can't trade resourceful and a box of Sean Casey nod-heads for a starting pitcher and a third baseman.

The 7-6 loss to New York was Cincinnati's fourth in six home games. The spirit remains willing. The flesh creaks. Casey has missed the last three games. Junior Griffey has had two at-bats in that stretch. He missed Thursday with dehydration. Griffey limped through the clubhouse after the game.

Austin Kearns is out another month at least. Barry Larkin at 40 looks better than most of us at 20. But he can't play every day. And so on.

What you were left with Thursday was a batting order straight outta Sarasota. In the second inning, first baseman-of-the-moment Tim Hummel stranded two baserunners. In the fourth, he stranded two more. In the ninth, first baseman-of-the-next-moment Adam Dunn charged a bunt that pitcher John Riedling grabbed, leaving the base unprotected.

"An aggressive mistake," Dave Miley called it. Forgive Dunn. He's an outfielder.

This is the time when you promote your future studs and see what they can do. If you have future studs. The Reds do not. That's why four different players had to take over for Casey in the last three days: Dunn, Hummel, Javier Valentin and Juan Castro, of all people. It's why if you're looking for the Reds to trade prospects for pitching, you're sleeping.

A major-league scout in for the last three games offered these assessments of the Reds on Thursday:

"If they can keep Griffey and Larkin healthy, they have somewhat of a chance. I love the heart of the order (Casey, Griffey and Dunn). The problem is, they're all left-handed. They need Austin Kearns to balance the lineup.

"They don't have a lot of depth at starting pitcher. (Cory) Lidle is a real streaky pitcher. I've watched him his whole career. Two years ago in July, he was the best pitcher in the American League. He's due a hot streak. Paul Wilson is on the fringe of being a pretty good pitcher."

The scout praised the Reds defense and the way the pitchers throw strikes. Of the NL Central, he said, "Whoever gets their bullpen lined up quickest wins, and that makes this club look good, with (Todd) Jones and (Danny) Graves. If your manager doesn't know who to go to late in games, it's tough to win."

It was a generous appraisal, from a scout who admits to having seen the Reds only five or six times. It sounded good, until he said this: "It may boil down to who makes the best deal. Can the Reds do that? I don't know their minor-league system well enough to answer that."

We do. We'll answer that: If the Reds had any players down there, they'd be up here.

They got behind 6-0 to Al Leiter on Thursday. Grit brought them back, but it wasn't enough. Across 162 games, it never is. There is a limit to the number of games you can win with intangibles and four different guys playing first base in one three-game series.

They're just four games out of first place, but it's beginning to look like a mirage.

The beauty of a six-month, 162-game season is in the truth it reveals. Even if that truth hurts.

E-mail pdaugherty@enquirer.com