By John Fay
Enquirer staff writer

The Reds seem to have gotten their starting pitching straightened out. The bullpen, however, remains shaky - very shaky.

The relief corps blew a save for the second straight night.

This time, the relievers blew the game as well, as the Reds fell to the St. Louis Cardinals 6-5 before 18,962 at Great American Ball Park Wednesday.

PHOTO GALLERY

Photos of Wednesday's game

Starter Luke Hudson pitched six impressive innings, but the bullpen blew a 5-2 lead.

"(Hudson) threw a phenomenal game," said Joe Valentine, who took the loss. "It's tough. To play that well and then falter at the end is really bothersome."

The game slipped away in three increments.

The Cardinals scored an unearned run, thanks to Juan Castro's throwing error.

"That was as big a run as any," Reds manager Dave Miley said.

John Riedling gave up the lead on Jim Edmonds' two-run homer in the eighth.

And Valentine gave up a run in the ninth to take the loss. His inability to throw strikes cost him.

Mike Matheny led off the ninth with a bloop single that went off the glove of a diving Austin Kearns.

Valentine got the next two hitters, then walked Roger Cedeno and Larry Walker to load the bases for Albert Pujols. His second pitch to Pujols was in the dirt and went to the backstop, allowing Reggie Sanders, pinch running for Matheny, to score the game-winner.

"Matheny just got enough of it," Valentine said. "Then I walked the world."

But the pitch to Pujols was the one he wanted back.

"I yanked a slider there," Valentine said. "I was trying to make too good a pitch."

Hudson pitched six innings, allowing two runs on four hits. He walked one and struck out five. The Reds' starters have a 2.14 ERA in the last seven games.

Aside from a fat fastball to Pujols in the first, which was hit for a two-run homer, Hudson was nearly flawless.

"He tried to blow a fastball by Pujols and left it over the plate," Miley said.

The most impressive thing Hudson did all night: He got the Big 3 out 1-2-3 on his third time through the lineup. Hudson retired Pujols, Scott Rolen and Edmonds, baseball's only .300-hitting, 30-homer trio, in order in the sixth.

That put him in line for the win because Adam Dunn and D'Angelo Jimenez started the sixth with back-to-back home runs. The Reds added a run in the inning. Kearns doubled, went to third on Jason LaRue's flyout and scored on Felipe Lopez's suicide squeeze.

Hudson pitched six shutout innings against Arizona to get his first big-league win his last time out, but he quickly got an idea of how different it would be facing the Cardinals. The game barely started when Pujols sent one out to center on a line.

"I'm learning every time out," Hudson said. "You've got to get ahead. If they get a hitter's count and get the pitch they're looking for, they don't miss it very often."

The home run was Pujols' 39th of the year. It was Pujols' seventh home run and 20th and 21st RBI against the Reds this year.

The Reds cut the lead in half in the bottom of the second. Jimenez and Kearns started the inning with back-to-back singles. It looked as if Woody Williams would get out of the inning unscathed after he struck out LaRue and got Lopez on a flyout. But Hudson helped himself by lining a single to left. It was his first major-league hit, and it was a 2-1 game.

The Reds tied it in the third. Dunn walked with two outs, and Jimenez lined one to the wall in right-center to score Dunn.

Williams got on a roll after the Jimenez double, retiring seven in a row.

The roll ended with Dunn's 37th home run - a shot to right-center that just got over the glove of Edmonds as he jumped at the wall.

Jimenez followed with his 10th homer, his third in as many games.

With Kearns at third and one out, the suicide squeeze was a good call. Lopez had only one hit in his last 14 at-bats. His bunt was a good one. Williams made a nice play to get Lopez, but that made it 5-2.

It appeared the Reds were about to win three in a row for the first time since June 23-25.

Then the bullpen came in.

St. Louis	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Cedeno lf	4	0	0	0	1	0	.277
Isringhausen p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.333
LWalker rf	4	1	1	0	1	1	.321
Pujols 1b	5	2	3	2	0	0	.326
Rolen 3b	4	0	0	0	0	0	.323
Edmonds cf	3	1	1	2	1	1	.303
Renteria ss	4	1	0	0	0	0	.297
Tavarez p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Taguchi lf	0	0	0	0	0	0	.276
Matheny c	4	0	1	0	0	1	.251
RSanders pr	0	1	0	0	0	0	.254
YMolina c	0	0	0	0	0	0	.252
MAnderson 2b	4	0	1	1	0	1	.228
WWilliams p	1	0	0	0	0	1	.229
Womack ph	1	0	1	0	0	0	.304
Al Reyes p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Kline p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Luna ss	1	0	0	0	0	0	.234
Totals	35	6	8	5	3	5

Cincinnati	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Bragg cf	5	0	0	0	0	3	.191
JCastro 3b	4	0	1	0	0	0	.245
JaCruz ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.233
Casey 1b	4	0	0	0	0	0	.338
Dunn lf	3	2	1	1	1	0	.273
DJimenez 2b	4	2	4	2	0	0	.262
Kearns rf	4	1	2	0	0	1	.213
LaRue c	4	0	0	0	0	1	.253
FLopez ss	3	0	0	1	0	2	.248
Hudson p	2	0	1	1	0	0	.167
Vander Wal ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.146
JoAcevedo p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.053
Riedling p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Valentine p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Larkin ph	1	0	1	0	0	0	.307
Freel pr	0	0	0	0	0	0	.279
Totals	36	5	10	5	1	7

St. Louis	200	000	121	-6	8	0
Cincinnati	011	003	000	-5	10	1

E-JCastro (8). LOB-St. Louis 6, Cincinnati 6. 2B-Pujols (37), MAnderson (11), JCastro (19), DJimenez (20), Kearns (3). HR-Edmonds (33), off Riedling; DJimenez (10), off WWilliams; Dunn (37), off WWilliams; Pujols (39), off Hudson. RBIs-Pujols 2 (98), Edmonds 2 (88), MAnderson (24), Dunn (78), DJimenez 2 (50), FLopez (17), Hudson (1). SB-DJimenez (11), Freel (27). S-WWilliams, FLopez.

Runners left in scoring position-St. Louis 4 (LWalker, Pujols 2, Rolen); Cincinnati 5 (Bragg, JaCruz, Dunn, Kearns, LaRue).

Runners moved up-Matheny, MAnderson, LaRue.

St. Louis	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
WWilliams	6	8	5	5	1	4	106	4.07
Al Reyes	1	0	0	0	0	0	8	0.00
Kline	2/3	1	0	0	0	1	10	1.90
Tavarez W, 6-4	1/3	0	0	0	0	0	1	2.63
Isringhausen S, 36	1	1	0	0	0	2	18	2.66

Cincinnati	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Hudson	6	4	2	2	1	5	103	3.63
JoAcevedo H, 1	1	1	1	0	0	0	18	6.21
Riedling BS, 6	1	2	2	2	0	0	23	4.57
Valentine L, 1-2	1	1	1	1	2	0	21	7.84

Inherited runners-scored-Tavarez 1-0.

WP-Valentine.

Umpires-Home, Ed Rapuano; First, Ted Barrett; Second, Lance Barksdale; Third, Alfonso Marquez.

T-3:03. A-18,962 (42,271).