Braves 6, Reds 2

**Stardust** · 05-16-2012, 07:02 AM

ATLANTA â Johnny Cueto had been so good this year that his struggles Tuesday night a bit shocking.

Not to Cueto.

"It's part of the game," he said through a translator. "I'm not a robot."

Cueto (4-1) took his first loss of the season as the Reds fell to the Atlanta Braves 6-2 before a crowd of 21,530 at Turner Field. The Reds' split the two-game series here. They flew to New York after the game where they open a two-game series tonight.

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Cueto had given up a total of seven runs (six earned) in his first seven starts. He nearly topped that by the third inning Tuesday. Cueto ended up going four innings and allowing six runs (five earned) on eight hits. He walked two and struck out two.

It was the most runs he's allowed since giving up eight on Sept. 22, 2010.

"It's been a while," Cueto said. "I don't think anything was wrong. I felt really good. All my pitchers were good. It's the way it goes sometimes."

Cueto came in with a best ERA in the majors at 1.12 -- it was still only 1.89 after the loss -- but a night like Tuesday was bound to happen.

"They hit him pretty good," Reds manager Dusty Baker said. "It looked like they had a good game plan against him, and they can. That was not one of Johnny's better outings. That's not going to happen very often."

Cueto gave up a home run to Brian McCann in the second. It was McCann's third hit off Cueto -- all three have been home runs.

"It was a high change-up," Cueto said.

The third was a disaster.

Jack Wilson started it with a single to left. Tim Hudson bunted into a fielder's choice.

Then came the hit parade. Michael Bourn singled. Martin Prado shot one into right field to get Hudson home. Chipper Jones followed with a another single to score Bourn and send Prado to third.

Dan Uggla hit a sacrifice fly to right to score Prado. After McCann walked, Jason Heyward doubled on the 10th pitch of his at-bat to score Jones and make it 5-0.

Cueto blamed all the hits on the location of his slider.

"I was trying to throw it in middle," he said. "But it wasn't landing the middle. They were going away. I didn't have control of those pitches."

The Brave added an unearned run in the fourth to make it 6-0.

The Reds could have gotten back into this one with a few more timely hits. They had 11 hits on the night -- one fewer than the Braves -- but they were 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position.

The Reds did not score until the seventh. Todd Frazier led off with a single, snapping an 0-for-10. Ryan Hanigan hit a double into the right field corner to Frazier home. Two outs later, Drew Stubbs singled to score Hanigan.

Joey Votto followed with a single to extend his streak of reaching base to 26 games. Suddenly, the Reds had the tying run on deck. But Brandon Phillips flied out to shallow center to end the threat.

The Reds put two runners on the eighth and ninth and did not score. The Reds left 11 runners on the night.

"They had that big inning where they strung hits together," said Chris Heisey, who had his second straight three-hit game. "We couldn't put three or four together. We had opportunities, but we couldn't push them across."http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20120515/SPT04/305150101/Braves-beat-Cueto-get-even-Reds?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Reds