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Volquez dominates, Hairston drives in three as Reds roll

Apr 23, 2008 - 3:41 AM CINCINNATI (Ticker) -- Jerry Hairston Jr. took full advantage of his first start as a member of the Cincinnati Reds.

Hairston had four hits and three RBI in support of seven solid innings from Edinson Volquez as the Reds posted an 8-1 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday.

Adam Dunn and Brandon Phillips homered for Cincinnati, which had not scored more than four runs in any of its previous four games. Oddly enough, the Reds broke out of their rut one night after the light-hitting Dodgers posted a 9-3 victory on Monday.

Hairston, who was called up from Class AAA Louisville on Monday, helped the Reds bang out a season-high 15 hits.

"It is nice just to play again at this level," Hairston said. "There is no other place to be."

Hairston, who signed with Cincinnati on March 3, attributed the success to being fully recovered from back injuries that have plagued him in the past.

"I'm healthy for once," he said. "When I am healthy I know what kind of player that I can be. The last couple of years have been awfully tough for me, so I tried to get healthy this offseason and I was able to do that."

Lost in the Reds' offensive outburst was the performance of Volquez (3-0), who allowed just one run and three hits in seven innings. The righthander retired 11 of the last 12 batters he faced.

"My curve was working tonight," Volquez said. "My slider, my fastball and my changeup were working too. Things were down."

One of Volquez's only mistakes came in the third, when he allowed an RBI double to Rafael Furcal. However, the Reds knotted the game at 1-1 in the bottom of the inning on an RBI single by Jeff Keppinger.

Dunn's solo home run in the fourth sparked a four-run frame that broke open a tie game. The rally was capped by Hairston's two-run single to center.

Dunn snapped the 1-1 deadlock with a solo homer to left field off Dodgers starter Hong-Chih Kuo (0-1). The lefthander allowed five runs and eight hits in 3 2/3 innings.

"Tonight I did not try to do too much with it, just kind of hit it because Kuo was pretty good and I am glad that we jumped on him early," Dunn said.

Edwin Encarnacion followed Dunn's homer with a double and Joey Votto singled. Paul Bako followed with an RBI single to left for a 3-1 advantage and, two batters later, Hairston greeted reliever Scott Proctor with a two-run single to center for a four-run bulge.

The Reds continued their offensive outburst in the fifth as Phillips hit his second home run of the season and Votto added a run-scoring double for a 7-1 lead.

Hairston capped the scoring with an RBI single in the eighth.

"It was kind of a reverse game from last night," Reds manager Dusty Baker said. "They beat us up pretty good last night, and we beat them up pretty good tonight."