By John Fay
Enquirer staff writer

ST. LOUIS - Gabe White, the left-hander brought in to bolster the Reds' bullpen, added his name to the blown-save list Tuesday night.

White served up Edgar Renteria's two-run home run in the seventh that lifted the St. Louis Cardinals to a 5-3 victory over the Reds before a crowd of 29,786 at Busch Stadium.

The first batter White faced, former Red Reggie Sanders, nearly took him out. Sanders doubled off the left-field wall. After Tony Womack sacrificed Sanders to third, Renteria hit an 0-1 pitch out for his fifth home run of the year to make it 4-3.

Reds' Jose Acevedo pitches in the third inning against the Cardinals in St. Louis Tuesday. (AP photo)

Renteria was hitting .429, best in the National League, off left-handers.

"But if you look at matchups, he was 0-for-8 off White," Reds manager Dave Miley. "I guess he was due."

White was brought in to help bridge the gap from the starters to Todd Jones and Danny Graves.

"Gabe's done a hell of a job for us to this point," Miley said.

White had allowed only one run in eight appearances - a 1.17 ERA - since coming to the Reds in trade from the New York Yankees on June 18.

Jim Edmonds homered off White in the eighth to make it 5-3.

The loss was the second straight for the Reds to open the seven-game road trip that leads into the All-Star break. It puts them a season-high seven games behind the Cardinals in the National League Central.

The Cardinals, winners of five straight, have taken four of five from the Reds this season. The Reds go into tonight's game needing a win to avoid the sweep. They will send out Jesus Sanchez, who gave up six runs in 4 1/3 innings in his first start.

The Reds led Tuesday 3-0 after two innings, but they managed only four singles in the last seven innings.

"We've got to find some way, somehow to add on runs," Miley said. "I'm not taking anything away for (Matt) Morris. He pitched well. But we've got to tack on runs."

Reds starter Jose Acevedo, 2-7 since April 20, came up big. He went six innings, allowing two runs on six hits. He walked three and struck out six. It was Acevedo's best start since a 4-1 win over Montreal April 29.

"I worked on some mechanics," Acevedo said. "It gave me more movement on my pitches."

Acevedo followed the Reds' "throw strikes" mantra. He entered the game tied for seventh in the NL with only 2.0 walks allowed per game. Acevedo's problem has been home runs. He had given up 20 of them entering Tuesday.

Acevedo was second in the NL in home runs allowed. Only St. Louis' Morris had given up more (24).

Adam Dunn nearly made it 25 in the second inning. After Ken Griffey Jr. led off the inning with a single, Dunn crushed Morris' pitch to dead center.

St. Louis Cardinals centerfielder Jim Edmonds goes high above the wall to rob Adam Dunn of a home run in the second inning. (AP photo)

The ball would have made it 2-0 if someone other than Edmonds were playing center field for the Cardinals. Edmonds went a foot over the wall and brought back what would have been Dunn's 25th home run of the season.

"I didn't hit it that good," Dunn said. "I knew if it was near the wall he was going to catch it."

Jason LaRue followed with a single. Jacob Cruz got Griffey in with a double the opposite way to left.

With first base open, the Cardinals walked No. 8 hitter Tim Hummel. Acevedo helped himself with a sacrifice fly to left, and Ryan Freel made it 3-0 with a single to left.

That was it for the Reds' offense.

Acevedo gave up two runs in the fourth to make it a 3-2 game.

But Acevedo pitched out of a two-out jam in the fifth and then struck out the side in the sixth.

Acevedo said he felt good enough to go out for the seventh. But his spot came up in the seventh, and Miley pinch hit for him. Acevedo was at 105 pitches and had worked hard to deal with the middle of the Cardinals' lineup.

"He had done his job," Miley said. The offense hadn't.

The Reds sent up only one over the minimum 15 batters in the third through the seventh, thanks to two double plays and a pickoff.

"We've got to do better than that," Miley said.

Cincinnati	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Freel lf-rf	4	0	1	1	0	1	.277
Larkin ss	4	0	0	0	0	0	.290
DJimenez 2b	4	0	1	0	0	1	.256
Griffey Jr. cf	4	1	3	0	0	0	.251
Dunn 1b-lf	3	0	0	0	1	0	.263
LaRue c	4	1	2	0	0	0	.231
JaCruz rf	3	1	1	1	0	0	.269
GWhite p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Hummel 3b-1b	2	0	0	0	1	1	.275
JoAcevedo p	1	0	0	1	0	0	.069
JCastro ph-3b	1	0	0	0	0	0	.288
Totals	30	3	8	3	2	3

St. Louis	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Womack 2b	3	0	0	0	0	0	.306
Renteria ss	4	1	1	2	0	0	.282
Pujols 1b	4	0	1	0	0	1	.309
Rolen 3b	3	1	1	0	1	2	.346
Edmonds cf	3	2	1	1	1	0	.275
Cedeno rf	4	0	2	1	0	1	.284
MAnderson lf	2	0	0	1	0	1	.262
Taguchi ph-lf	1	0	0	0	0	0	.253
YMolina c	3	0	0	0	1	1	.236
Morris p	2	0	0	0	0	1	.135
Sanders ph	1	1	1	0	0	0	.256
Kline p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Totals	30	5	7	5	3	7

Cincinnati	030	000	000	-3	8	0
St. Louis	000	200	21x	-5	7	0

LOB-Cincinnati 3, St. Louis 6. 2B-JaCruz (5), Pujols (26), Cedeno 2 (2), RSanders (15). HR-Edmonds (17), off GWhite; Renteria (5), off GWhite. RBIs-Freel (16), JaCruz (18), JoAcevedo (1), Renteria 2 (38), Edmonds (51), Cedeno (7), MAnderson (17). SB-DJimenez (9). S-Womack. SF-JoAcevedo, MAnderson. GIDP-Dunn, LaRue, JaCruz.

Runners left in scoring position-Cincinnati 1 (Larkin); St. Louis 4 (Rolen, Edmonds, YMolina, Morris).

Runners moved up-MAnderson.

DP-St. Louis 3 (Morris, Renteria and Pujols), (Renteria, Womack and Pujols), (Pujols, Renteria and Pujols).

Cincinnati	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
JoAcevedo	6	4	2	2	3	6	105	5.20
GWhite L, 0-1	BS, 1	2	3	3	3	0	1	28	3.72

St. Louis	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Morris W, 9-6	7	7	3	3	2	3	102	4.33
Kline S, 2	2	1	0	0	0	0	24	2.05

IBB-off JoAcevedo (YMolina) 1, off Morris (Hummel) 1. WP-JoAcevedo.

Umpires-Home, Bill Welke; First, John Hirschbeck; Second, Wally Bell; Third, Laz Diaz.

T-2:32. A-29,786 (50,345).