By John Fay
Enquirer staff writer

PHOTO GALLERY

Photos from Tuesday's game

Remember back in April, when everyone thought the Houston Astros had the makings of a World Series contender?

That Houston team finally has shown up.

The Astros, powered by five home runs, beat the Reds 8-0 before a crowd of 19,586 at Great American Ball Park.

Houston has won 13 of its last 16 games to work its way back into the National League wild-card race.

The Astros have done that mostly by swinging mean bats. They scored 51 runs over their last five games, and have outscored the Reds in their series here 19-3.

Aaron Harang started for Cincinnati and went five innings, allowing four runs on seven hits. It was the first time in 13 starts that a Reds starter has allowed more than three earned runs.

Joe Valentine pitched the ninth inning and allowed four runs.

The Reds, who started this homestand by taking two of three games from the St. Louis Cardinals, have lost four of their last five.

Harang was coming off a three-hit, 1-0 win against St. Louis. He was nearly as good on Tuesday until a four-pitch sequence in the fifth.

The Astros took a 1-0 lead on Jeff Kent's 18th home run of the season, leading off the second. But other than that, Harang had allowed only three hits and two walks and had struck four.

He struck out Craig Biggio to start the fifth, then the game changed drastically.

Carlos Beltran got things started by hitting a 2-2 pitch into the Reds' bullpen for his 21st home run of the year.

Jeff Bagwell hit the very next pitch out to right for his 21st homer.

Two pitches later, Lance Berkman hit the longest of the three blasts for his 24th home run. The ball landed a few rows from the top of the moon deck in right.

Four pitches, three runs.

The Astros had not gone back-to-back-to-back on home runs since July 19, 2003. Those also came at Great American, off Jimmy Haynes.

A 4-0 disadvantage look very large with the way the Reds have been swinging the bats. They had a grand total of two hits to that point off Brandon Backe, who came in with 2-3 record and a 5.72 ERA in his career.

Poor fundamentals fizzled Cincinnati's only chance at rally. Felipe Lopez walked and Jason LaRue reached on an infield single to start the third.

Harang was sent up to try to bunt them over, but it could not have gone worse.

He bunted through the first pitch, and Lopez was caught too far off second. It went down as a 2-6-5 caught stealing.

Harang bunted the second pitch too hard, and Backe fielded it and started a 1-6-3 double play.

Backe, a 26-year-old right-hander, was making short work of the Reds otherwise. He pitched six innings of three-hit shutout ball.

Backe wasn't put into the Astros' rotation until he was recalled from Triple-A on Aug. 18. He very good in his first start (seven shutout innings), and very bad in his second (three innings, seven runs). Both came against the Cubs.

The Reds had one other threat against him Tuesday. With two outs in the sixth, Barry Larkin was hit by a pitch to reach base for the third straight time. Sean Casey followed with his 41st double of the year, one short of his career-high, but Adam Dunn took a called third strike on a 3-2 pitch.

The Reds may have lost another player to injury. Center fielder Wily Mo Pena had to leave the game after banging hard into the wall making a catch in the seventh inning. He suffered a bruised chest wall and is day-to-day.

The Astros' bullpen finished things up by running its streak of scoreless innings to seven in the series.

Houston	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Biggio lf	5	1	3	0	0	1	.286
Lane rf	0	0	0	0	0	0	.237
CBeltran cf	5	1	1	1	0	1	.260
Bagwell 1b	5	2	2	2	0	0	.265
Bruntlett ss	0	0	0	0	0	0	.222
Berkman rf-1b	5	1	1	2	0	2	.308
JKent 2b	5	2	2	3	0	0	.288
Wheeler p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.200
Lamb 3b	4	0	2	0	1	1	.297
JVizcaino ss-2b	3	0	0	0	1	0	.287
Ausmus c	3	0	0	0	1	2	.251
Backe p	3	0	0	0	0	2	.143
Qualls p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Gallo p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
OPalmeiro ph-lf	0	1	0	0	1	0	.246
Totals	38	8	11	8	4	9

Cincinnati	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Freel rf-cf	4	0	0	0	0	1	.269
Larkin ss	2	0	1	0	1	0	.303
Casey 1b	4	0	2	0	0	0	.335
Dunn lf	4	0	0	0	0	3	.271
DJimenez 2b	4	0	1	0	0	0	.256
WPena cf	2	0	0	0	0	0	.256
Kearns ph-rf	2	0	1	0	0	0	.221
FLopez 3b	0	0	0	0	4	0	.245
LaRue c	2	0	1	0	0	0	.248
JoAcevedo p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.050
JaCruz ph	1	0	0	0	0	1	.238
GWhite p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Valentine p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Vander Wal ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.136
Harang p	1	0	0	0	0	0	.021
Valentin c	2	0	0	0	0	1	.214
Totals	29	0	6	0	5	6

Houston	010	030	004	-8	11	0
Cincinnati	000	000	000	-0	6	0

LOB-Houston 7, Cincinnati 8. 2B-Lamb (10), Casey (41). HR-Berkman (24), off Harang; Bagwell (21), off Harang; CBeltran (21), off Harang; JKent 2 (19), off Valentine, Harang. RBIs-CBeltran (46), Bagwell 2 (65), Berkman 2 (85), JKent 3 (81). SB-Biggio (7). CS-FLopez (1). GIDP-Casey, Kearns, Harang. dp-Houston 3.

Houston	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Backe W, 2-2	6	3	0	0	3	3	91	4.74
Qualls	1 2/3	2	0	0	1	2	36	5.02
Gallo	1/3	0	0	0	0	1	5	4.98
Wheeler	1	1	0	0	1	0	16	4.56

Cincinnati	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Harang L, 8-7	5	7	4	4	3	6	99	4.25
JoAcevedo	2	0	0	0	0	0	22	5.99
GWhite	1	1	0	0	0	1	12	5.97
Valentine	1	3	4	4	1	2	28	9.22

IBB-off Harang (Ausmus) 1. HBP-by Backe (Larkin).

Umpires-Home, Mike Everitt; First, Larry Young; Second, Angel Hernandez; Third, Mark Wegner.

T-2:59. A-19,586 (42,271).