Reds Baseball

Eric Milton took a shutout into the eighth inning, and the Cincinnati Reds beat the Chicago Cubs 3-2 Wednesday night to avoid a three-game sweep.

Ken Griffey Jr. had two hits, including a home run off Carlos Zambrano (3-3) leading off the sixth, and drove in two runs as Cincinnati won for the second time in seven games. Ryan Freel had two hits and scored a run for the Reds.

Milton (3-2) allowed a single to Juan Pierre leading off the first and then retired the next 17 batters before Pierre singled up the middle with two outs in the sixth.

In his third start since returning from arthroscopic knee surgery, Milton allowed two runs and six hits, winning for the first time since beating the Cubs on April 13.


In other games
• Giants 6, Marlins 1 — Jason Schmidt won his fifth consecutive decision, striking out 10 before leaving in the sixth inning with a leg cramp during San Francisco's victory over Florida at Miami.
Schmidt (5-2) left the game with a full count on Josh Willingham with two outs in the sixth. Jeremy Accardo replaced Schmidt and struck out Willingham. Accardo pitched 2 1/3 perfect innings.

Schmidt matched his season high for strikeouts and improved to 7-0 lifetime against the Marlins.

The Giants played without Barry Bonds for the second consecutive day.

• Braves 9, Dodgers 3 — Chipper Jones and Andruw Jones each hit two-run homers, Tim Hudson finally slowed the Los Angeles offense and Atlanta won at home to avoid a sweep.
Andruw Jones homered with two outs in the first off Brett Tomko, who lasted only three innings in his shortest appearance of the season. Jones finished with three RBIs.

Chipper Jones hit his two-run shot in the third, sparking a five-run outburst that finished off the Dodgers starter.

Hudson (5-3) limited Los Angeles to six hits and a couple of meaningless runs in seven innings after the Braves built their early 7-0 lead.

• Nationals 3, Phillies 2 — Alfonso Soriano had a two-run homer and a tie-breaking single as Washington avoided a three-game sweep with a victory at Philadelphia.
Livan Hernandez (4-5) allowed two runs and five hits over seven innings to get his third consecutive victory.

• Pirates 6, Brewers 1 — Jose Castillo homered for the fifth consecutive game and Freddy Sanchez scored three runs as Pittsburgh won at home to earn its first three-game winning streak of the season.
Jack Wilson extended his hitting streak to 11 games, and Castillo and Sanchez each had streaks of seven hits in seven at-bats snapped in the seventh inning.

• Padres 3, Rockies 2 — Mark Bellhorn doubled in the go-ahead run in the sixth inning for San Diego, which had only four hits in winning at home.
Colorado's Jeff Francis (3-5) held the Padres to one hit through five innings and was leading 2-0 after Todd Helton's fourth-inning homer.

When popular first baseman and clubhouse leader Sean Casey was dealt away earlier this month, catcher Jason LaRue became the Reds' longest-tenured current player. On Wednesday, the club announced its intentions to keep it that way.

Continuing a flurry of housekeeping moves this week, Cincinnati signed LaRue to a two-year contract worth $9.1 million.

The deal allowed LaRue to avoid arbitration with Cincinnati and ensured his spot as the team's starter behind the plate. The 31-year-old will earn $3.9 million in 2006 and $5.2 million in 2007. If he is traded after Oct. 15, his 2007 salary jumps to $5.45 million automatically.

LaRue established new career highs with a .260 average and 60 RBIs in 110 games (104 starts) while making $3 million in 2005. He also had 14 home runs and teamed up with Javier Valentin to form one of the best offensive catching duos in the Major Leagues, as the two combined for 28 homers and 101 RBIs.

Knowing that he could become a free agent after next season, LaRue and his agent approached the Reds about a new contract soon after the 2005 season ended.

"I wanted some sort of a commitment instead of just playing this year and becoming a free agent next year," LaRue said by phone while taking a break from hunting with his son on his south Texas ranch. "They stepped up and they did the right thing."

It also gave the Reds a little more certainty about their payroll beyond the upcoming season.

"It allows us to, hopefully, maintain the stability of our core position players," Reds general manager Dan O'Brien said.

A fifth-round draft pick by Cincinnati in 1995, LaRue broke in with the Reds in 1999 and is a lifetime .243 hitter. He's also thrown out 39 percent of runners trying to steal and has a .990 fielding percentage for his career.

Without Casey's presence, LaRue will be looked to as a focal leader in a relatively young clubhouse. It already comes with the territory being a catcher, who is required to lead on the field.

"I try to play the game the right way -- or the old way as I consider it," LaRue said. "I'll just go and take care of business and try to be a leader like Casey was. I'll step up, do the right things and help the younger guys along to do the right things."

"First and foremost, Jason has affected his teammates and our organization by the way he's gone about his business," O'Brien said. "There's no harder worker and no better competitor. You know for all nine innings, he's going to give you an honest effort that day. You have to respect players that play the game like that."

Six Reds players are still eligible for arbitration -- Valentin, outfielder/first baseman Adam Dunn, pitcher Aaron Harang, outfielders Austin Kearns and Wily Mo Pena and shortstop Felipe Lopez. The club avoided the process with utility player Ryan Freel by signing him to a two-year, $3 million contract on Monday. Two other pitchers, Ramon Ortiz and Joe Valentine, were not offered contracts Tuesday and became free agents.

With precious few shopping days left before the holidays, the Reds still haven't landed that frontline pitcher they've been seeking for their starting rotation.

Fortunately, the buying season in baseball stretches well beyond Dec. 25. Even so, Reds fans with names of pricey free agent starters like Kevin Millwood and Jeff Weaver at the top of their wish lists should probably cross them off.

Reds general manager Dan O'Brien hotly pursued top free agent starter Matt Morris, but lost out when the right-hander signed a three-year, $27 million deal with the Giants on Dec. 12. O'Brien isn't interested in entering costly bidding wars for Millwood or Weaver, who are both represented by agent Scott Boras. Millwood, the 2005 American League ERA leader with Cleveland, was rumored to be entertaining four-year contract offers in the $45-50 million range. Another Boras client, lefty Jarrod Washburn, signed with Seattle earlier this week.

The quality of the pitchers available drops significantly from there. If Cincinnati lands a No. 1 starter at all this winter, it likely won't be through free agency.

"The bottom line is some of the other pitchers out on the market -- in trying to balance performance to potential cost -- it hasn't equated," O'Brien said. "We're looking to supplement the club in other ways. It may be the trade route or by giving individuals who were injured a bounce-back scenario."

The Reds already acquired lefty Dave Williams from Pittsburgh in the Sean Casey trade. Williams is not considered a top-tier starter, but he could still bolster the back end of the rotation with a solid season.

On Wednesday, O'Brien began perusing the list of pitchers not tendered a contract before Tuesday night's deadline. Among a group that carried few recognizable names were right-handers Wade Miller (Red Sox), Josh Fogg (Pirates) and Dewon Brazelton (Padres).

O'Brien also left open the possibility of signing a veteran pitcher to a Minor League deal with the chance to make the team out of Spring Training.

While specific names were not identified, we already know the Reds need groundball pitchers that can keep the ball inside the homer haven that is Great American Ball Park. Cincinnati pitchers allowed a Major League-high 219 home runs in 2005 while combining for a National League-worst 5.15 ERA.

Here are some pitchers the Reds could be looking over on the open market:

• RHP Jason Johnson: The free agent gave the Tigers 210 innings last season and ranked second in the American League with a 1.74 groundball-to-fly ball ratio while earning $4 million. However, the 32-year old Johnson has won just eight games in each of the last two seasons and has an unimpressive 4.88 lifetime ERA in nine seasons.

• Miller: The 29-year-old has a career 1.24 groundball-to-fly ball ratio. But he's coming off September shoulder surgery that repaired a torn labrum and wasn't expected to start throwing again until possibly February. In his two finest seasons, Miller was 16-8 with a 3.40 ERA and 15-4 with a 3.28 ERA with Houston -- but that was in 2001 and 2002, respectively.

• RHP Joe Mays: He is a skilled sinkerball pitcher that excels in getting grounders and double plays, but the 30-year-old comes with heavy injury baggage. Mays won 17 games in 2001 with the Twins but went 18-26 with a 5.81 ERA over the last four years with Minnesota. He missed all of 2004 recovering from Tommy John surgery on his elbow. He struggled in his 2005 comeback and went 6-10 with a 5.65 ERA and became a free agent when his $8.5 million club option wasn't picked up.

• RHP Kevin Brown: Not offered free agent arbitration earlier this month by the Yankees after earning over $15 million in 2005, Brown missed quite a bit of action this year with back problems and went 4-7 in 22 games with a career-high 6.51 ERA. If healthy and significantly more affordable than he's been in the past, he would bring 18 years of experience with a career 3.28 ERA and a 2.62 groundball-to-fly ball ratio.

• Fogg: A control pitcher who lacks velocity but keeps the ball in play, the 29-year-old had double-digit win totals for Pittsburgh from 2002-04. But he's coming off a rough 2005 season during which he was 6-11 with a 5.05 ERA while earning $2.15 million.

• Brazelton: A former first-round pick in the 2001 First-Year Player Draft, Brazelton has endured a rough career, going 8-23 with a 5.98 ERA in four seasons with the Devil Rays. He was 1-8 with a 7.61 ERA in 2005 before being traded to San Diego for Sean Burroughs earlier this month. The Padres said they hoped to re-sign him for next season. That's probably a good thing for Cincinnati.

Other names out there include Kaz Ishii, Ryan Franklin, Shawn Estes, Jose Lima and former Reds starter Brett Tomko. Additional pitchers could emerge on the trade market, but O'Brien would likely have to part with another chip from his club's high-octane offense.

"There are some pitchers available that we think represent an upgrade to our rotation or bullpen," O'Brien said. "I never handicap these things. We have a number of lines out there."