By John Fay
Enquirer staff writer

MILWAUKEE - This was one that seemed doomed from the start. The first five Milwaukee Brewers all reached base on an assortment of infield hits, flares and bloopers.

Toss in the couple of sacrifice flies, and the Brewers were up by five runs.

"A lot of teams would have been done right there," closer Danny Graves said.

Reds' Jason LaRue (23) is congratulated by teammate Jacob Cruz (9) after LaRue hit a two-run home run during the eighth inning. (AP photo)

The Reds, however, chipped away early and then closed with a bang - or rather three bangs - to win 9-6 before a crowd of 31,841 at Miller Park.

Wily Mo Pena went 4-for-5 and homered in the seventh and ninth. Jason LaRue hit a two-run homer to put the Reds ahead for good.

The Reds went into the three-day All-Star Break a happy bunch. They go into the break 47-41 and 11/2 games out of the National League Wild Card lead.

"To battle back like that gives everyone a good feeling," Reds manager Dave Miley said. "We get a couple of guys back after the break and go from there."

The Reds, who lost Ken Griffey Jr., for at least 15 days, will get Sean Casey and Ryan Freel back when play resumes Thursday.

The key to Sunday's come back was the way Jose Acevedo responded after his unfortunate first.

"Those hits in the first were chinkers and infield hits," LaRue said. "Jose did a good job after that, putting up those four shutout innings."

Acevedo allowed only one other hit and pitched four shutout innings after the first.

The Reds scored one in the second on Brandon Larson's RBI single; one in the third on Jacob Cruz's RBI; and two in the sixth on Javier Valentin's pinch-hit RBI single and D'Angelo Jimenez's RBI double.

That made it 5-4.

Adam Dunn led off the seventh with a double. Two outs later, Pena hit a 402-foot blast to left-center.

The Reds had a 6-5 lead.

Brewers' Lyle Overbay is congratulated by third base coach Rich Donnelly after hitting a solo home run to tie the game at 6-6. (AP photo)

But Lyle Overbay homered off Gabe White in the sixth to tie it 6-6

"After we came back, it would have been tough if he didn't win it," Miley said.

The Brewers, who needed this win badly, brought on closer to Dan Kolb in the ninth.

Cruz singled with one out and took second when center fielder Scott Podsednik bobbled the ball.

That brought up LaRue. He did not know that Kolb had not allowed an extra-base hit all year.

"I'm not a stat rat," LaRue said. "I do know that he's one of the best closers in the game. I was just looking for a base hit to get Cruz in."

He got a four-base hit. He hit an 0-1 pitch from Kolb the opposite way to left-center - a 405-foot shot.

Two pitches later, Pena hit one out to almost the same spot.

It was Pena's first two, home run game in the majors.

"That was my best game," Pena said. "I was 1-for-13 (in the series). I worked with (hitting coach) Chris Chambliss in the cage. He told me to do this, this, this."

Pena did this, this, this and that.

"When he gets a hold of one, he puts a charge into it," Miley said.

With Griffey out, Pena figures to keep playing. He's been one of the surprises of the first half. He goes into the All-Star Break, hitting .270 with 10 home runs and 28 RBI in 159 at-bats.

That projects to 31 home runs and 90 RBI over a 500 at-bat season. The difference is he's getting to play.

"That helps a lot," he said. "You remember last year, I could do anything. When you play every day, you see more pitches. It makes a big difference."

Sunday, Pena made a big difference, too.

Cincinnati	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
DJimenez 2b	3	1	1	1	2	0	.259
JCastro ss	5	0	0	0	0	1	.268
Dunn lf	4	1	1	0	1	0	.263
JaCruz rf	5	1	2	1	0	1	.255
LaRue c	5	2	2	2	0	0	.228
WPena cf	5	3	4	3	0	0	.270
Hummel 1b	4	0	0	0	0	2	.242
GWhite p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
TJones p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
c-Larkin ph	1	0	1	0	0	0	.295
Graves p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Larson 3b	5	1	2	1	0	2	.221
JoAcevedo p	2	0	0	0	0	1	.065
a-Valentin ph	1	0	1	1	0	0	.174
Riedling p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Vander Wal 1b	1	0	1	0	0	0	1.000
Totals	41	9	15	9	3	7

Milwaukee	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Podsednik cf	5	1	1	0	0	0	.253
Counsell ss	4	1	1	0	0	2	.259
Jenkins lf	4	1	1	1	0	1	.251
Overbay 1b	4	2	3	1	0	0	.344
KGinter 2b	3	1	1	1	0	1	.257
Adams p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
LVizcaino p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
b-Magruder ph	0	0	0	0	1	0	1.000
Kolb p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
JBennett p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
BClark rf	2	0	0	1	2	0	.251
Helms 3b	2	0	0	1	0	2	.258
d-Grieve ph	1	0	0	0	0	1	.282
GBennett c	2	0	0	1	0	0	.182
e-Kieschnick ph	1	0	1	0	0	0	.324
VSantos p	2	0	0	0	0	1	.056
Kinney p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.250
BHall 2b	2	0	0	0	0	1	.248
Totals	32	6	8	6	3	9

Cincinnati	011	002	203	-9	15	0
Milwaukee	500	000	010	-6	8	1

a-singled for Acevedo in the 6th. b-walked for Vizcaino in the 8th. c-singled for Jones in the 9th. d-struck out for Helms in the 9th. e-doubled for G.Bennett in the 9th.

E-Podsednik (2). LOB-Cincinnati 8, Milwaukee 4. 2B-DJimenez (15), Dunn (15), Vander Wal (1), Overbay (37), Kieschnick (3). HR-LaRue (8), off Kolb; Overbay (10), off GWhite; WPena 2 (10), off Kolb, Adams. RBIs-DJimenez (27), JaCruz (19), LaRue 2 (29), WPena 3 (28), Larson (13), Valentin (11), Jenkins (48), Overbay (62), KGinter (34), BClark (23), Helms (17), GBennett (9). SF-Helms, GBennett. GIDP-Larson.

Runners left in scoring position-Cincinnati 6 (JCastro 3, WPena, JoAcevedo 2); Milwaukee 3 (Podsednik, GBennett, VSantos).

Runners moved up-DJimenez, JaCruz, KGinter.

DP-Cincinnati 1 (JCastro and DJimenez); Milwaukee 1 (Counsell, BHall and Overbay).

Cincinnati	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
JoAcevedo	5	6	5	5	2	6	75	5.38
Riedling	1 1/3	0	0	0	0	1	15	3.80
GWhite BS, 2	1	1	1	1	1	0	16	3.86
TJones W, 7-2	2/3	0	0	0	0	0	7	3.33
Graves S, 33	1	1	0	0	0	2	15	2.72

Milwaukee	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
VSantos	5 2/3	6	4	4	3	6	98	4.08
Kinney	0	2	0	0	0	0	11	5.96
Adams BS, 2	1 2/3	3	2	2	0	1	27	1.85
LVizcaino	2/3	0	0	0	0	0	9	2.88
Kolb L, 0-1	1/3	4	3	3	0	0	23	1.62
JBennett	2/3	0	0	0	0	0	1	4.32

Kinney pitched to 2 batters in the 6th.

Inherited runners-scored-TJones 1-0, Adams 2-0, LVizcaino 1-0, JBennett 1-0, Kinney 2-2.

PB-LaRue.

Umpires-Home, Kevin Kelley; First, Gary Cederstrom; Second, Jim Reynolds; Third, Andy Fletcher.

T-3:17. A-31,841 (41,900).