By John Fay
Enquirer staff writer

Adam Dunn is a victim of his own high standards. Most players would be giddy to go from what he did last year to what he's done this year.

But it's only in that context that Dunn will even give himself a passing grade.

"Compared to last year, yes, it's going good," Dunn said. "Compared to what I think I'm capable of doing, no."

By most measures Dunn is having a breakout year. He's set career highs - for home runs (36) and RBI (77) - with 39 games to play.

His batting average is .274, 69 points higher than he finished last year.

He is in the thick of the home run race, just two behind major-league leader Albert Pujols. He's among the National League leaders in walks (fifth, 84), total bases (sixth, 251), on-base percentage (ninth, .398), slugging percentage (10th, .582) and outfield assists (fifth, 9).

Dunn leads the league in strikeouts out with 147, but no one is comparing him to Dave Kingman anymore.

Dunn still slips into funks. He's in a bit of one now, in fact, with four hits in his last 28 at-bats.

"Some days you feel good. For a three-week span, I felt great," he said. "It's a battle to stay there. The good ones don't stay in the low points too long."

That is where hitting coach Chris Chambliss has been able to help Dunn a great deal. Chambliss has been able to keep Dunn from going into a prolonged tailspin.

"When things go wrong, we identify what goes wrong," Chambliss said. "When he knows what's going wrong, he can relax. If he doesn't know what's wrong, he presses. When you press, you're in a lot of trouble."

Dunn has been remarkably consistent since June, hitting .291 since June 1.

Chambliss didn't set out to make over Dunn's swing. The changes Chambliss made were more philosophical than mechanical.

"The first thing we did was use the whole field," Chambliss said. "That kind of brought back what he used to so - spray the ball around. That doesn't reduce his power. Some guys think you have to pull the ball to hit home runs, but that's opened up his power because it allows him to extend his arms."

Dunn's got so much power that he doesn't have to hit it down the line to hit it out. His 535-foot monster shot was to just right of center field.

Chambliss is the only one who works with Dunn. That's a departure from the past. When Bob Boone was manager, Boone, the hitting coach and any other coach who had the urge gave Dunn advice - often conflicting.

"Every day," Dunn said. "No one hits the same. Some people's philosophies are totally different from others. There are a lot of times when somebody would tell me one thing, then two minutes later someone would tell me something contradicting what the other person said."

Chambliss is not constantly in Dunn's ear.

"He doesn't over coach," Dunn said. "He'll let you know if you're doing something wrong. But he let's you play."

Lately, Chambliss and Dunn are working on cutting his strikeouts down and raising his average with runners in scoring position. Dunn is hitting .243 with runners in scoring position.

"We're trying to take advantage of his eye," Chambliss said. "That's a two-edged sword. He's got a great eye. He gets all the walks. But some times his eye is so keen he ends up taking pitches with runners in scoring position. We talked about protecting the plate with two strikes on those close pitches.

"He's been doing that lately."

Dunn is probably always going to have his share of strikeouts. Those are easy to live with when his average is above .270.

"We constantly try to cut the strikeouts down, Chambliss said. "He does have a big swing. Power and strikeouts go together. His average is OK. The batting average is the big thing."

Dunn hit .304 as a minor leaguer. He thinks he can get his average to that point in the majors.

What Dunn doesn't concern himself with is his home run numbers. No Red has led the majors in homers since George Foster did it with 52 in 1977.

"That's the one thing I don't look at," Dunn said. "You can't control it. You can't control when you're going to hit a home run. I don't worry about it."

Adam Dunn: 2004 vs. 2003

Year	AB	R	H	2B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	AVG
'03	381	70	82	12	27	57	74	126	.215
'04	431	81	118	25	36	77	84	147	.274

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E-mail jfay@enquirer.com