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Phillips, Valentin power Reds past Pirates

Aug 13, 2008 - 2:49 AM By Chris Adamski PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- The Cincinnati Reds traded away players who had combined for almost 900 career home runs in the past two weeks.

But playing their first game without either Ken Griffey Jr. or Adam Dunn, the Reds still were able to use the long ball to earn their first victory in more than a week.

Brandon Phillips and Javier Valentin homered and Edinson Volquez was strong into the seventh inning as the Reds snapped a six-game losing streak with a 5-1 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday.

"You gotta do what you have to do, and we're more of a speed and defense and hopefully contact team now," Reds manager Dusty Baker said. "But it starts with pitching. If you get pretty good pitching, you've got a pretty good chance to win the ballgame, and Edinson, he threw a great game tonight."

Corey Patterson added two hits and two RBI for Cincinnati, which had lost 14 of 16 coming in and had traded Dunn to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday for three minor-leaguers.

Nate McLouth and Chris Gomez each had two hits for the Pirates, who were playing their third game in three days in as many cities.

Phillips' homer off Pirates starter Jeff Karstens, his 17th, just over the wall in left scored Chris Dickerson to give the Reds a first-inning lead. Valentin's solo blast, his second, went out to center in the fourth to make it 3-0.

"It's a different team now," Phillips said. "It's different not having our superstars here anymore, but we're just having a team full of stars now. Everybody is coming together as a team, we're just trying to get key hits in key situations now. We don't need home runs to win games, and we showed everybody that today."

Dickerson was making his major-league debut. He collected his first big-league hit, a double, in the seventh. Also getting their first hit at this level for the Reds was Adam Rosales, who singled in the ninth.

"I was just trying to put some good at-bats together, hoping for that first one," Dickerson said. "After I got it, it was like 1000 pounds off my shoulders."

Volquez (14-5) moved into a tie for second place in the National League in victories by allowing one run on five hits and three walks in 6 2/3 innings with five strikeouts. He had lost two of his previous three starts.

"I feel happy today because we won," Volquez said. "We hadn't won in (six) games but won tonight so I feel very good. It was a good night to get my 14th.

"It's all about runs, just scoring some runs to get a lead early. You get more confidence when that happens."

The Reds scored an unearned run in the sixth, when Patterson's two-out single drove in Phillips, who had reached on an Andy LaRoche error.

Patterson added an insurance run in the eighth when his double scored Edwin Encarnacion.

The Pirates got on the board when LaRoche, playing his first game as a Pirate at PNC Park, doubled in Doug Mientkiewicz in the fourth.

Karstens (2-1) had thrown 15 shutout innings in two starts since being acquired from the New York Yankees late last month in a trade, including taking a perfect game into the eighth in his most recent start last week at Arizona. He was making his first start at PNC Park.

"I didn't really feel to comfortable when I first got out there (Tuesday), but as the game went on I began to feel more comfortable," Karstens said. "After two or three innings, I was feeling a little more acclimated to the mound and everything."

He was charged with four runs - three earned - on seven hits and two walks in seven innings with two strikeouts.

"He went deep into the game," Pirates manager John Russell said. "A couple pitches he made went out of the park, and that hurt him. But other than that, I thought he threw the ball OK. He wasn't as sharp as he has been, but he still went seven innings."