By John Fay
Enquirer staff writer

MILWAUKEE - Brandon Claussen was able to get ahead of hitters Friday night. He wasn't able to put them away.

The result was the worst start in Claussen's brief career as a Red. Claussen allowed eight runs in just 1 1/3 innings of work in the Reds' 11-4 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers Friday night.

Reds' Brandon Claussen got knocked around Friday night. (AP photo)

The Reds have lost four straight and six of seven. At 62-71, they are a season-high nine games under .500. The club would have to go 19-10 the rest of the way to avoid a fourth straight losing season.

The Reds have been outscored 39-10 in the last four games. It was the first time the Brewers had scored 10 runs in a game since July 1.

The Reds also got a double whammy on the injury front. Jason LaRue hyperextended his right knee running out a ground ball in the second and had to leave the game. Danny Graves, just off the disabled list, was struck on the foot by a Wes Helms comebacker in the eighth and had to come out.

The Reds have gone four straight games without a quality start. Before that, they had a string of seven quality starts in a row.

Claussen's problem was closing out hitters. Of the five hitters who reached base in the five-run first, Claussen was ahead of four of them either 0-2 or 1-2.

But big-league hitters have been able to foul off Claussen's out pitch - the cut fastball.

At Triple-A, Claussen struck out 1.1 batters per inning pitched. With the Reds, he's striking out only 0.53 batters per inning.

But Claussen had done a good job recently of keeping the Reds in the game. His ERA was 2.59 over his last three starts.

Friday, it was very apparent very early that he wasn't going to be able to do that.

Scott Podsednik led off the first with a single after being down 1-2 in the count. An out later, Lyle Overbay walked.

Geoff Jenkins doubled in two runs after falling behind 0-2. Keith Ginter singled after falling behind 0-2. Brady Clark got another run home with a sacrifice fly.

Claussen quickly went up 1-2 on Wes Helms. But Helms fouled off four pitches and took a couple balls to get the count full. Helms then hit his first home run since May 11 to make it 5-0.

The home run came on the 40th pitch of the inning.

The Reds scored two runs on Felipe Lopez's RBI single and LaRue's RBI fielder's choice in the second to make it 5-2.

But Claussen's troubles continued in the bottom of the second. He walked pitcher Wes Obermueller to start the inning. After three more hits and two more runs, Claussen was done.

That left a lot of work for the bullpen. Todd Van Poppel (1 2/3 innings, one run), Phil Norton (two scoreless innings), Joe Valentine (two innings, one run), Graves (two batters faced) and Gabe White (one scoreless inning) finished up.

The offensive highlight: Austin Kearns hit his first home run since coming off the disabled list, an opposite-field solo shot in the sixth.

The offensive lowlight: The Reds hit into double plays in the first, second and third innings.

Cincinnati	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Freel cf-3b	4	1	2	0	1	0	.273
Larkin ss	3	0	0	1	2	0	.301
Casey 1b	3	0	0	0	1	0	.332
Dunn lf	4	0	0	0	0	2	.269
DJimenez 2b	3	1	1	0	1	1	.256
Kearns rf	4	2	2	1	0	0	.231
FLopez 3b	1	0	1	1	1	0	.250
PNorton p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Vander Wal ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.133
Valentine p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Graves p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
GWhite p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
JaCruz ph	1	0	0	0	0	1	.236
LaRue c	1	0	0	1	0	0	.247
Valentin pr-c	3	0	2	0	0	0	.218
Claussen p	1	0	0	0	0	0	.083
Van Poppel p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.125
Bragg cf	3	0	0	0	0	0	.185
Totals	32	4	8	4	6	4

Milwaukee	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Podsednik cf	6	2	4	0	0	0	.254
BHall ss	6	0	1	0	0	3	.251
Overbay 1b	4	2	1	1	1	2	.313
Jenkins lf	4	1	3	3	1	0	.259
Adams p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
KGinter 2b	5	1	1	1	0	1	.250
BClark rf	1	2	0	1	3	0	.263
Helms 3b	5	1	3	3	0	0	.267
GBennett c	5	1	2	2	0	0	.222
Obermueller p	2	1	2	0	1	0	.406
Krynzel ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Liriano p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
cagruder ph-lf	1	0	0	0	0	0	.250
Totals	40	11	17	11	6	6

Cincinnati	020	011	000	-4	8	1
Milwaukee	531	001	01x	-11	17	2

E-Bragg (1), BHall 2 (18). LOB-Cincinnati 7, Milwaukee 12. 2B-Kearns (4), Valentin (8), Podsednik (23), Overbay (42), Jenkins 2 (32), Helms (12). 3B-Freel (6). HR-Kearns (4), off Obermueller; GBennett (3), off Van Poppel; Helms (3), off Claussen. RBIs-Larkin (43), Kearns (17), FLopez (20), LaRue (43), Overbay (77), Jenkins 3 (74), KGinter (40), BClark (32), Helms 3 (24), GBennett 2 (19). SB-KGinter (6). SF-BClark. GIDP-Freel, Larkin, Casey, Kearns.

Runners left in scoring position-Cincinnati 2 (Larkin, Casey); Milwaukee 8 (BHall, Jenkins, KGinter 4, Helms, Krynzel).

Runners moved up-Larkin, BHall, GBennett.

DP-Milwaukee 4 (Helms, KGinter and Overbay), (Helms, KGinter and Overbay), (KGinter, BHall and Overbay), (KGinter, BHall and Overbay).

Cincinnati	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Claussen L, 2-4	1 1/3	7	8	8	2	0	56	6.65
Van Poppel	1 2/3	3	1	1	2	2	47	6.21
PNorton	2	2	0	0	0	2	28	5.28
Valentine	2	3	1	1	1	1	38	8.62
Graves	0	1	1	1	1	0	8	4.23
GWhite	1	1	0	0	0	1	14	5.61

Milwaukee	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Obermueller W, 5-7	6	6	4	4	4	2	111	6.34
Liriano	2	1	0	0	1	1	31	1.93
Adams	1	1	0	0	1	1	19	3.53

Graves pitched to 2 batters in the 8th.

Inherited runners-scored-GWhite 2-1, Van Poppel 2-1.

IBB-off Van Poppel (Jenkins) 1.

Umpires-Home, Jerry Layne; First, Ed Montague; Second, Jerry Meals; Third, Paul Schrieber.

T-3:22. A-16,262 (41,900).