By John Fay
Enquirer staff writer

PHOTO GALLERY

Photo gallery from game.

At least, the Reds added to their highlight reel and made the Cardinals sweat Wednesday.

They had Wily Mo Pena's over-the-top, homer-snatching catch.

They had Barry Larkin's two-out, pinch-hit grand slam that got the Reds back in the game.

They had a three-run rally in the eighth inning.

But in the end, they had another loss - 11-10 to St. Louis at Great American Ball Park.

"It was definitely one of the strangest I've ever been involved in," Reds manager Dave Miley said of the game.

How strange was it?

St. Louis starter Jeff Suppan walked 10 batters in 4 2/3 innings and left with a five-run lead.

Thirteen Reds walked on the night - their most since July 22, 1979. The Cardinals left 15 on base; the Reds 11. There were six home runs, including the 100th of Adam Dunn's career, and numerous other twists and turns.

"We'll take wild," Larkin said, "as long as we get a win. It's been amazing all the things that have happened to us these last seven or eight games."

The loss was the Reds' eighth in a row. They hadn't lost eight in a row since July 3-10, 2003.

The Reds (50-52) are two games under .500 for the first time all year and are 16-30 since June 6, when they were a season-high 12 games over .500.

"I feel bad for Miley," Larkin said. "He's pushing all the buttons. We're not getting it done."

Wednesday's game appeared for a minute or two to be shaping up to be a dramatic Reds win. Larkin's grand slam cut what once was an 8-1 St. Louis lead to 8-7.

But Gabe White gave up two runs in the sixth and John Riedling gave up another in seventh to make it 11-7.

"It was a huge grand slam," Miley said. "But we've got to go out and put up a zero the next inning. It didn't happen."

So the three runs in the eighth just made it a little closer. The Reds got the tying run to second in the bottom of the ninth, but Sean Casey grounded out to end it.

"This team fights," Larkin said. "We had a chance in the ninth with our best hitter up. That's all you can ask."

Jose Acevedo continued his woeful string of starts. He went 4 1/3 innings, allowing seven runs (six earned) on nine hits.

Acevedo was able to minimize the damage in the first inning. He gave up two runs but got a strikeout to end it when a hit would have meant two more runs for St. Louis.

Ryan Freel singled home Felipe Lopez, who had doubled, in the second to make it 2-1.

Jim Edmonds led off the third with his 27th home run of the year. Six of them have come against the Reds.

The fourth could have done in Acevedo - if not for some help from Pena. With runners at first and second, Albert Pujols hit a rocket to center. Pena went to the wall, dug the spikes of his right shoe into the padding to climb it, and went three feet above to rob Pujols of a homer.

"I knew I had a chance to catch that ball," Pena said.

It came apart for Acevedo in the fifth. Edmonds led off with a single through the middle and, an out later, Sanders hit a ball that went off third baseman Freel's glove. Freel and shortstop Lopez chased it down, leaving second and third uncovered, and Sanders had an infield double.

The Reds walked Mike Matheny to get to pitcher Suppan, who was 0-for-32 on the year. Suppan laid down a bunt toward first base, which Casey fielded and threw wildly toward home.

"It was a safety squeeze," Miley said. "He probably had more time than he realized. You can't fault a guy for an aggressive play."

Two runs scored, making it 5-1.

Todd Van Poppel replaced Acevedo and promptly gave up a three-run homer to Womack to make it 8-1.

Game over, right?

Not quite.

Dunn led off the fifth with a shot off the foul pole in right for his 28th homer the year, a career-high.

Suppan struck out D'Angelo Jimenez and Pena, then lost control. Three walks and a hit got another run in, and a walk to Freel to force in a run ended Suppan's night. Suppan became the first Cardinal to walk 10 in a game since Steve Carlton on July 3, 1971.

The Cardinals brought in lefty Steve Kline to face John Vander Wal; the Reds countered with pinch hitter Larkin.

Larkin's seventh homer of the year barely got out to right. It was his first at-bat since Saturday, when he injured an oblique muscle.

It was a one-run game at 8-7.

It didn't stay like that for long. Rolen led off the sixth with his 22nd home run of the year. Sanders' RBI pushed the lead back to 10-7.

Rolen hit his 23rd homer of the season in the seventh off Riedling.

The Reds loaded the bases in the eighth on two walks and a hit. Pinch-hitter Javier Valentin got home two runs with a single, and Jason LaRue made it 11-10 with a single.

St. Louis	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Womack 2b	6	1	3	3	0	1	.298
Renteria ss	5	1	2	0	1	0	.289
Pujols 1b	5	0	1	0	1	0	.322
Rolen 3b	6	3	4	3	0	0	.332
Edmonds cf	2	2	2	1	1	0	.293
Taguchi cf	3	1	2	0	0	0	.264
Cedeno lf	3	0	1	1	2	1	.296
RSanders rf	6	1	2	1	0	1	.252
Matheny c	5	1	2	0	1	2	.252
Suppan p	3	1	0	0	0	1	.000
Kline p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Luna ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.244
Eldred p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
MAnderson ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.243
Calero p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
King p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Isringhausen p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.500
Totals	46	11	19	9	6	6

Cincinnati	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Freel 3b-rf	2	2	1	2	3	0	.270
Vander Wal rf	3	0	1	0	0	0	.190
Larkin ph	1	1	1	4	0	0	.302
GWhite p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
JCastro ss	2	0	0	0	0	2	.249
Casey 1b	5	1	0	0	1	0	.337
Dunn lf	3	2	2	1	2	1	.268
DJimenez 2b	2	0	0	0	2	1	.259
Riedling p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Valentin ph-c	1	0	1	2	0	0	.200
WPena cf	5	0	0	0	0	3	.278
LaRue c	4	1	1	1	1	0	.251
Graves p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
FLopez ss-2b	4	2	2	0	1	1	.170
JoAcevedo p	1	0	0	0	1	0	.061
Van Poppel p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.125
Hummel ph-3b	1	1	0	0	2	0	.238
Totals	34	10	9	10	13	8

St. Louis	201	052	100	-11	19	0
Cincinnati	010	060	030	-10	9	3

E-Casey (5), FLopez (5), Hummel (4). LOB-St. Louis 15, Cincinnati 11. 2B-Renteria (25), Rolen 2 (24), Taguchi (5), Cedeno (5), RSanders 2 (18), FLopez (3). HR-Rolen 2 (23), off Riedling, GWhite; Larkin (7), off Kline; Dunn (28), off Suppan; Womack (5), off Van Poppel; Edmonds (27), off JoAcevedo. RBIs-Womack 3 (29), Rolen 3 (92), Edmonds (68), Cedeno (9), RSanders (51), Freel 2 (18), Larkin 4 (40), Dunn (60), Valentin 2 (15), LaRue (36). S-Cedeno, Freel. GIDP-Pujols, RSanders, Casey. DP-St. Louis 1, Cincinnati 2.

St. Louis	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Suppan	4 2/3	5	6	6	10	2	118	4.02
Kline	1/3	1	1	1	0	0	6	2.45
Eldred W, 2-0 H, 5	2	0	0	0	0	3	23	4.58
Calero	1/3	0	1	1	1	1	10	2.93
King	0	2	2	2	1	0	7	2.13
Isringhausen S, 26	1 2/3	1	0	0	1	2	32	2.54

Cincinnati	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
JoAcevedo L, 4-10	4 1/3	9	7	6	5	5	108	6.33
Van Poppel	2/3	1	1	1	0	0	12	5.51
GWhite	1	4	2	2	0	0	15	5.00
Riedling	2	3	1	1	0	1	42	4.07
Graves	1	2	0	0	1	0	20	3.27

King pitched to 3 batters in the 8th.

Inherited runners-scored-Kline 3-3, King 1-1, Isringhausen 2-1, Van Poppel 2-2.

IBB-off Graves (Cedeno) 1, off JoAcevedo (Matheny) 1. WP-Suppan. Balk-JoAcevedo.

Umpires-Home, Bruce Froemming; First, Hunter Wendelstedt; Second, Mike Winters; Third, Tim Timmons.

T-3:53. A-33,282 (42,271).