DaytonDailyNews.com

CINCINNATI — On '80s night in Great American Ball Park, the Cincinnati Reds played like the 1982 team (102 losses) — and a whole lot like the 2008 team has played most of the season.

The Colorado Rockies, who were not in existence in the 1980s, pounded 16 hits, 15 off Reds starter Homer Bailey in 4 2/3 innings en route to a 5-1 victory.

The Reds? Two hits. Total. Nine innings.

Colorado is on a Rocky Mountain High, without John Denver. They have needed no help while going 8-1 since the All-Star break, getting 11 or more hits in seven straight games and outscoring the opposition 65-32.

Bailey was a fast-deflating punching bag on this night, giving up in successive innings two, two, two, three and six hits — 14 more than the Reds had over the same span.

Rockies lefthander Jorge De La Rosa, 4-5 with a 6.71 earned run average when the night began, made the Reds look like the guys in 1982 who couldn't hit — Larry Biittner (two i's, two t's, no hits), Duane Walker, Wayne Krenchicki, Paul Householder, Alex Trevino, Dave Van Gorder, Tom Lawless, Mike Vail and a guy named Clint Hurdle, now manager of the Rockies.

The Rockies pounded Bailey for 14 singles and one double, the most hits against a Reds pitcher since Jimmy Anderson gave up 15 against St. Louis on June 26, 2003.

So, Bailey retired 14 batters and gave up 15 hits, a ratio calculated to get a pitcher brutalized.

The score was held down to 1-1 until the fifth because outfielders Jay Bruce and Ken Griffey Jr. each threw a runner out at home plate, Bruce doubled a runner off first base and catcher David Ross threw a runner out at third on a sacrifice bunt.

The trickle turned into a torrent with two outs in the fifth when the Rockies struck for six straight singles; a two-run single by opposing pitcher De La Rosa ending Bailey's night.

"Bailey was getting away with a lot of hits and very few runs," said manager Dusty Baker. "The big hit was the two-run hit by the pitcher with two outs. That made it 5-1.

"I didn't want to burn a guy in the bullpen to get the pitcher because he was 1-for-20 this year," Baker added. "That was the big one. They were hitting some rockets everywhere — a lot of singles but they were hitting the ball hard."

Bailey was a bit perplexed.

"My slider was flat, but it is still a work in progress," he said. "Nonetheless, there were a few times I was 0-2 and 1-2 and I should have buried the hitter and didn't and threw it down the middle."

Of his miserable day on the mound, Bailey (0-4, 6.52) said, "One of those days that everybody has, but I seem to have more than others."

The pitcher?

"I made some good pitches early that I had to pat myself on the back for, but in the big situation in the fifth (four runs), all their damage came with two outs and I wasn't able to get out of it," he said.

The unearned run off Bailey came in the second after a pair of one-out singles and third baseman's Edwin Encarnacion's throwing miscue, his 17th error this season.

De La Rosa held the Reds hitless until there were two outs in the fourth. Ken Griffey Jr. pounded a pitch the opposite way and over the left-field wall, his 607th career homer, tying the game, 1-1.

Then came the four-run fifth and Bailey's departure.

While the Reds put five on via walks, the only hit off De La Rosa in 6 2/3 innings other than Griffey's homer was Adam Dunn's leadoff single in the seventh.

Bruce (0-for-11) and Jeff Keppinger (0-for-9), the 1-2 hitters in the Reds' order, have not gotten on base in the first two games of the series.

The Reds finished with two errors, the same as their number of hits.

"We didn't have a bunch of offense and we didn't play very good defense, either," Baker added. "We didn't play a very good ballgame."

After Bailey left, Gary Majewski, Jeremy Affeldt, Mike Lincoln and Bill Bray held the Rockies scoreless on one hit over the final 4 1/3 innings.

"Our bullpen needs some rest because we're having guys going two innings and going three days in a row," Baker said, trying to pry a long outing out of Josh Fogg this afternoon. "Maybe he can take us deep in the game because it is his former team and he knows this team, what they can hit and what they can't hit."

As far as Bailey is concerned, they can hit anything and everything.