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By Hal McCoy, Staff Writer 12:00 AM Thursday, August 6, 2009

CINCINNATI — In baseball, you expect the unexpected, and the unexpected arrives with a neat bow knotted around it.

Such was the scenario Wednesday night, Aug. 5, in Great American Ball Park when the Cincinnati Reds ended their eight-game losing streak by beating the Chicago Cubs 4-0.

Who’da thunk it?

Even owner Bob Castellini was chirping afterward as he walked out of the postgame clubhouse and said to the media, “C’mon, everybody. Cheer up. Tlhat was almost like winning the World Series.”

Cubs starter Rich Harden was 4-0 for his career against the Reds. And Harden was 5-1 this year in night games. In addition, Harden’s pitching opponent was Justin Lehr, making his second major-league start.

Expect the unexpected.

Lehr, his head shaved and wearing uniform No. 62, pitched as if he was fresh from the All-Star game, shutting out the Cubs on four hits, his first professional shutout at any level.

Lehr, never reaching above 87 mph on the gun, threw 117 pitches after never throwing more than 105, but manager Dusty Baker stood mesmerized as much as the Cubs hitters were mesmerized and said, “Things were going so well, you don’t want to mess with karma.”

And Baker bit into the you-never-know story line.

“I was talking earlier today about how a shutout would be nice, and it was an unlikely fellow who did it, but we’ll take it. He threw a great, great shutout. If you believe in miracles, that was one of them.”

In Lehr’s first start, he gave up three runs, four hits and six walks to the Colorado Rockies. This time it was no runs, four hits, one walk, four strikeouts.

“I was more consistent in the zone, mixing my speeds, and we got some runs early, which was nice,” said the 32-year-old Lehr, who hadn’t pitched in the majors since 2006 until this year.

“I got comfortable, and my guys played every play — tough plays, easy plays, and I kept building on it,” Lehr said. “First shutout? Yeah. No rhyme or reason, just the way it goes.”

Lehr was in the Reds system last year but left to pitch in Korea, then returned this year with Class AAA Lehigh Valley (Phillies), eventually returning to Louisville, the Reds’ Class AAA affiliate for cash, most likely a few sheckles.

“I’m not sure how it happened, but it has been a long haul since ’06 when I got the rug pulled out from underneath me rather quickly, and it has been really hard getting back,” he said.

He was released by the Milwaukee Brewers early in the 2006 season after pitching 66 games in relief in 2004, 2005 and 2006.

Lehr’s only problem Wednesday was like a mosquito on his shoulder, and he flicked it away by getting Alfonso Soriano on a called Strike 3 with two on and two out in the fourth. The pitch barely ticked 70 miles an hour.

“I stood him up with a curveball that was actually supposed to be in the dirt but barely got down in the zone at the last second,” Lehr said. “It worked, probably because he hadn’t seen a curveball from me. That’s not a pitch you get away with if you’ve already thrown him a bunch of curveballs.”

Before the sun settled out of sight, so it was still daylight, the Reds scored three runs off Harden in the second inning. And Lehr made them stand up.

Before the game, after he put Rolen’s name on the lineup card after Rolen missed two games, Baker said, “This is nice, real nice.”

How nice?

The first time Rolen came to the plate, in the second inning after Brandon Phillips beat an infield single, Rolen not only collected his first hit, he collected his first two RBIs and he collected his first home run — quite a collector’s item.

That made it 2-0 and the Reds scored again in that inning when Harden threw away Lehr’s sacrifice bunt.

Baker didn’t say anything about how nice it was writing Lehr’s name on the lineup card, but he had a lot to say afterward.

“That was so, so nice,” he said. “That was sweet. This is a funny game and you just don’t know. In Lehr’s last outing he was just so-so, wild and up in the zone. But tonight he was up when he wanted to be and down when he wanted to be and his curve was working.”

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