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Harang tosses shutout as Reds mow down Cardinals

Sep 18, 2008 - 2:32 AM By Douglas Tifft PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

CINCINNATI (Ticker) -- Aaron Harang tossed his first shutout of the season, leading the Cincinnati Reds to a 3-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday.

Harang (5-16) surrendered six hits and struck out four. He threw 79 of his 111 pitches for strikes.

Harang pointed to his ability to keep the ball away from the fat part of the strike zone as the key to his success.

"I was hitting my spots with my fastball, and I had a good changeup," Harang said. "The biggest thing was keeping pitches down. I did not get a lot of pitches up."

The complete game was Harang's 17th quality start of the season. However, due to poor run support, he has just a 4-8 record in those outings.

Wednesday's effort was the righthander's sixth quality start in a row, a span in which Harang owns a 2-3 record with a 1.93 ERA.

"I feel really good right now. It just took me a little time after coming off of the disabled list (with a sore right forearm on August 10). My timing was off, especially my hands," Harang said. "Once we figured that out, it seems that everything has come into place."

Luckily for Harang, the Reds were aided at the plate by Cardinals righthander Todd Wellemeyer's nemesis this season - home runs.

After keeping Cincinnati hitless over the first three innings, Wellemeyer (12-8) surrendered three solo home runs in the fourth. Andy Phillips and Jay Bruce started the inning with consecutive blasts, marking the third time this season Wellemeyer has surrendered back-to-back homers.

"It proved to not mean much, but at the time (that I hit my home run) we had the momentum going. Aaron was pitching a great game and Andy had just hit the home run," Bruce said. "It was a great team win tonight. We played a really good game."

Two outs later, rookie Paul Janish belted his first career shot, the 24th allowed by Wellemeyer this season.

Wellemeyer yielded just one other hit during his six-inning outing, walking two and striking out six.

Former Red Felipe Lopez collected two of the six hits by the Cardinals, who lost their seventh straight. St. Louis fell for the 12th time in 13 road games, dropping below .500 (38-39) away from home this year.

"We are just in a rut. This is really unenjoyable," said utilityman Brendan Ryan, who started in right field. "We are getting good innings out of our guys, but not getting hits and not putting together any big innings ... just really struggling offensively."