Taylor Grand Slam Beats Padres, 9-5

Reggie Taylor's second career grand slam paved the way for the Cincinnati Reds to beat the San Diego Padres 9-5. With a star-studded lineup, it was only a matter of time before Cincinnati brought the big bats out. No one thought it would come from Taylor.

August 9, 2003	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
San Diego	0	0	1	0	0	2	0	2	0	0	3	0
Cincinnati	0	0	0	1	0	3	1	4	0	3	8	3

WP: Aaron Harang (1-0) 5-2/3IP 5H 3ER 1BB 6K ERA: 4.76
LP: Oliver Perez (4-5) 6IP 8H 4ER 1BB 11K ERA: 5.05

Reggie Taylor entered the game as a pinch runner in the seventh. In the eight Taylor hit a curveball from Mike Matthews to extend the Cincinnati lead to 9-3.

Juan Castro led off the eighth with a single, and Jaret Wright issued one-out walks to Adam Dunn and D'Angelo Jimenez to load the bases. Matthews came in and Taylor put a 1-1 pitch over the right-center field wall.

The 6-foot-7, 240-pound San Diego native Aaron Harang earned his first National League victory as the Cincinnati Reds beat the San Diego Padres 9-5 on Saturday night.

Harang, 1-3 with a 5.34 ERA with Oakland before he was traded to Cincinnati on July 30, allowed three runs and five hits in 5-2/3 innings. He struck out six and walked one in his NL debut.

Harang couldn't work out of a jam in the sixth. With one out, Mark Kotsay and Mark Loretta singled and Harang struck out Phil Nevin. But Harang (1-0) then walked Ryan Klesko to load the bases. Kent Mercker came in and gave up a two-run ground-rule double to Sean Burroughs, who had three RBI’s in the game, as the Padres narrowed the deficit to 4-3.

But the Reds scored again in the seventh on Sean Casey's RBI single before Taylor's grand slam broke it open the next inning.

With the game tied at 1, Cincinnati scored three times in the sixth.

Oliver Perez (4-5) allowed consecutive singles to Barry Larkin, Casey, Brandon Larson and Jason LaRue to make it 3-1.

Ruben Mateo drove in the final run of the inning with a sacrifice fly.

It was the first loss for Perez since July 17.

Gary Matthews Jr. gave the Padres a 1-0 lead with an RBI single in the third, and Larson drew a bases-loaded walk in the fourth to tie it.

Notes

Jimenez went 2-for-4 and has hit safely in 24 of 28 games since being acquired from the White Sox on July 6.

Denis Savage can be reached at [e-mail]