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CINCINNATI — Zing went the one-game string, severed by The Big Z, Chicago's Carlos Zambrano.

After losing five straight before winning Monday, May 5, the Cincinnati Reds were able to beg and borrow (they couldn't steal ) only three hits off Zambrano through eight innings Tuesday — two singles by Ken Griffey Jr. and one single by Aaron Harang.

Ah, Aaron Harang, The Unchosen One this year. When he pitches, the Reds offense takes a paid day off, as it did Tuesday in Great American Ball Park during a 3-0 loss to the Cubs.

Harang shot himself in both big toes in the fourth inning when he uncharacteristically walked the first two batters. Both scored on a two-out single by Ronny Cedeno.

And that, in a very small peanut shell, is what happened on this night.

Harang is 1-5 with a 3.09 earned run average and seven of his eight starts are quality starts, probably making him the best 1-5 pitcher in the history of baseball.

"You can write the same story you've been writing (about his starts)," Harang said. "If you guys find a horseshoe, please give it to us. We can't find it. I'm as dumbfounded as anyone else."

The Cubs got a two-out, run-scoring single in the first by Aramis Ramirez and a two-out, two-run single by Cedeno in the fourth. The Reds had one two-out hit and it came with nobody on base — Harang's in the fifth, but Ryan Freel struck out.

"We need hits," said manager Dusty Baker. "No, we need hits and runs."

And maybe some patience. The Reds were flailing away late in the game and Zambrano needed only 30 pitches to finish his last three innings, and just six in the seventh inning.

"The difference was that they got two two-out hits, hits we're not getting," Baker said. "That was the difference in the ballgame. We just have to get some RBI hits, drive in some runs."

It was the third time this year the Reds have been shut out, the first time in Great American, where meek fly balls turn into home runs.

"As I've said before, what I hate the most is getting shut out," said Baker. "When you're not hitting, it makes you look like you're lethargic and not playing. That's not the case, it's just what it looks like when you aren't hitting the ball. And that's what's tough for this team because it always has hit."

Neither team hit a home run and it is only the 31st time in 422 games in GABP that no home runs have whistled out of the premises. It has never happened in back-to-back games — a challenge for this afternoon's pitchers and hitters.

When Zambrano walked two in the with only one out, it looked as if the Reds had something festering. Instead, Joey Votto was picked off second base.

"It was big," Baker said. "That's a play that probably won't happen to Joey again. But that's a play where you pick on younger players to do it. Joey is still learning. He is a tremendous talent who studies and probably won't happen again, but it happened tonight."

On Harang giving up two two-out hits for the three runs, Baker said, "Breaking balls. Not bad ones, either. It looks as if they were sitting on them because you don't reach out and hit those balls like that without having a pretty good idea that they might be coming."

Said Harang, standing bravely to face the media after another heart-ripping reversal, "We've just had some tough breaks and haven't been able to capitalize on the mistakes their pitchers make.

"I had the two walks, then the guy flips a little base hit right where we aren't at, and it's why I say this game is a lot of luck. And we haven't had any," Harang said.

Send all horseshoes to the Cincinnati Reds, c/o Aaron Harang, Great American Ball Park, 100 Main Street, Cincinnati, OH, 45202.

Today's game

Who: Cubs (Lieber 2-1) at Reds (Volquez 4-1).

When: 12:35 p.m.

Radio: WONE-AM (980)

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