CINCINNATI –

Mike Leake can look forward to next year thinking about how well he ended this season.

Leake pitched eight effective innings, Brandon Phillips homered again and the Cincinnati Reds beat the Chicago Cubs 2-1 Tuesday night to end a three-game losing streak.

Leake (12-9) made the majors right out of Arizona State and this is just his second season working out of a five-man rotation. The Reds thought it best to limit his innings and do not plan to pitch him again this year.

He finished with 175 innings, with all but seven in the major leagues. He is the Reds’ leader in wins and strikeouts.

“I’d like to finish the year but I understand,” Leake said. “The want to protect me and protect themselves.”

Leake allowed one run on six hits and two walks and struck out two.

Leake pitched a career-high nine innings in his previous start, giving up three hits against the Cubs at Wrigley Field. He took a one-hit shutout into the ninth in that game before giving up Starlin Castro’s two-out infield single and pinch-hitter Bryan LaHair’s tying home run.

“We wanted him to have one more start after that tough ending last time,” manager Dusty Baker said. “He’s matured a lot as a pitcher and a person. He reads bats well, fields his position and is an all-around player. We will limit him to pinch-running and in dire circumstances pinch-hitting.”

Leake was happy with his season, even with a brief demotion to Triple-A Louisville.

“It was a good learning year. It was nice to go down for a couple weeks and prove I belong,” Leake said.

Phillips homered for the third time in two games. He has 15 home runs this year.

Francisco Cordero pitched the ninth for his 33rd save.

The Cubs saw their three-game winning streak come to an end while wasting a solid pitching performance by Ryan Dempster (10-12). He allowed two runs and six hits, striking out eight in seven innings.

“That was fun,” Dempster said.

After combining for 27 hits, including seven home runs, and 20 runs in Monday’s 12-8 Chicago win, the Reds and Cubs produced a total of 12 hits and three runs with one homer on Tuesday.

Phillips connected in the bottom of the first for his third home run in four at-bats over the last two games.

The Reds made it 2-0 in the fifth. Devin Mesoraco drew a leadoff walk, Leake grounded into a forceout, Phillips walked and Edgar Renteria hit an RBI single. Renteria had three hits.

Carlos Pena led off the Cubs sixth with a double. He moved to third on LaHair’s soft single to left-center field and scored on Alfonso Soriano’s double-play grounder.

NOTES: Castro walked to lead off the game for the second consecutive night. He has reached base at least once in 26 consecutive games. … LaHair extended his career-opening hitting streak to eight games. … Reds RHP Johnny Cueto, Cincinnati’s scheduled starter on Wednesday, trails Los Angeles LHP Clayton Kershaw in the NL ERA race by .0044 percentage points. Cueto has gone four starts without a decision, including two blown saves. … Chicago’s scheduled starter, RHP Casey Coleman, hasn’t won in nine appearances, including seven starts, since May 19 at Florida. He is 0-4 in the span.

Published 1:56am Friday, September 2, 2011

CINCINNATI (AP) — Chris Heisey and the Cincinnati Reds finally got a couple of big hits against the Philadelphia Phillies. And it was too late to stop an embarrassing four-game sweep.

Heisey came off the disabled list and hit a three-run homer, but Ryan Howard went deep to lead Philadelphia to a 6-4 victory Thursday.

“There is a big-time small margin for error against them,” Reds manager Dusty Baker said. “If you don’t take advantage of chances which are rare, you don’t have much of a chance. They rarely help you out with a walk. They pound the strike zone and throw quality strikes.”

Mike Leake (11-9) gave up four runs and seven hits in six innings for Cincinnati, which had won six of seven coming into the series. Leake struck out six and walked one.

“Leake threw the ball pretty good,” Baker said. “They got a some bloops and infield hits.”

Philadelphia got to Leake for three runs in the second inning. Brian Schneider, pitcher Vance Worley and Shane Victorino each had an RBI single.

“I was falling behind,” Leake said. “I wasn’t attacking like I did the rest of the game.”

It could have been worse for the Reds but center fielder Drew Stubbs cut down Schneider when he tried to score on Worley’s bouncer up the middle.

The Reds snapped their streak of consecutive scoreless innings at 21 in the bottom half. Brandon Phillips doubled to left, advanced to third on Edgar Renteria’s groundout to shortstop and scored on Joey Votto’s sacrifice fly to center.

Worley (10-1) allowed four runs and eight hits, struck out seven and walked one. The first six of his Ks came on called third strikes, most of them on sinkers, he said.

The Phillies improved to 15-2 in Worley’s 17 starts this season and have won each of his last 13, their longest streak since they won a club-record 15 consecutive Steve Carlton starts in 1972.

Worley was cruising before the Reds opened their seventh with three consecutive hits. Stubbs doubled and Ryan Hanigan singled before pinch-hitter Heisey hit an opposite-field drive to right to get Cincinnati within two.

Heisey was activated from the disabled list before the game. He had been out since Aug. 7 with a strained left oblique.

Michael Martinez hit a two-run homer to help the Phillies (87-46) move 41 games over .500 for the first time since Aug. 26, 1976, when they improved to 83-42 with a win at Cincinnati. It was Philadelphia’s first four-game sweep at Cincinnati since May 13-16, 1916.

Martinez’s third homer landed in the fourth row of right-field seats in the seventh, giving the Phillies a 6-1 lead. It came against Jared Burton, who was making his first appearance of the year.

“What really hurt was the home run by Martinez,” Baker said. “Heisey hit that big home run to make it close. We missed Heisey, big time.”

Philadelphia won seven of eight games against the Reds this season to improve to 30-12 against them over the last six seasons.

Howard hit a solo shot to left-center on a 3-1 pitch from Leake in the sixth, giving Philadelphia a 4-1 lead and extending his streak of consecutive seasons with at least 30 homers and 100 RBIs to six.

NOTES: The Reds promoted INFs Juan Francisco and Chris Valaika, RHPs Jared Burton and Carlos Fisher, LHPs Jeremy Horst and Matt Maloney and C Devin Mesoraco from Triple-A Louisville before the game. OF Fred Lewis cleared waivers and was outrighted to Louisville. … The Reds left after the game for their second consecutive 10-day, nine-game road trip, starting with three in St. Louis. NL ERA-leader Johnny Cueto, coming off a career-high 11-strikeout performance on Sunday, is Cincinnati’s scheduled starter on Friday. … The Phillies headed to Florida for a three-game series with the Marlins. RHP Roy Oswalt, a 6-5 loser to Florida last Friday, is scheduled to start for Philadelphia.

CINCINNATI —

Chris Heisey and the Cincinnati Reds finally got a couple of big hits against the Philadelphia Phillies. And it was too late to stop an embarrassing four-game sweep.

Heisey came off the disabled list and hit a three-run homer, but Ryan Howard went deep to lead Philadelphia to a 6-4 victory Thursday.

“There is a big-time small margin for error against them,” Reds manager Dusty Baker said. “If you don’t take advantage of chances which are rare, you don’t have much of a chance. They rarely help you out with a walk. They pound the strike zone and throw quality strikes.”

Mike Leake (11-9) gave up four runs and seven hits in six innings for Cincinnati, which had won six of seven coming into the series. Leake struck out six and walked one.

“Leake threw the ball pretty good,” Baker said. “They got a some bloops and infield hits.”

Philadelphia got to Leake for three runs in the second inning. Brian Schneider, pitcher Vance Worley and Shane Victorino each had an RBI single.

“I was falling behind,” Leake said. “I wasn’t attacking like I did the rest of the game.”

It could have been worse for the Reds but center fielder Drew Stubbs cut down Schneider when he tried to score on Worley’s bouncer up the middle.

The Reds snapped their streak of consecutive scoreless innings at 21 in the bottom half. Brandon Phillips doubled to left, advanced to third on Edgar Renteria’s groundout to shortstop and scored on Joey Votto’s sacrifice fly to center.

Worley (10-1) allowed four runs and eight hits, struck out seven and walked one. The first six of his Ks came on called third strikes, most of them on sinkers, he said.

The Phillies improved to 15-2 in Worley’s 17 starts this season and have won each of his last 13, their longest streak since they won a club-record 15 consecutive Steve Carlton starts in 1972.

Worley was cruising before the Reds opened their seventh with three consecutive hits. Stubbs doubled and Ryan Hanigan singled before pinch-hitter Heisey hit an opposite-field drive to right to get Cincinnati within two.

Heisey was activated from the disabled list before the game. He had been out since Aug. 7 with a strained left oblique.

Michael Martinez hit a two-run homer to help the Phillies (87-46) move 41 games over .500 for the first time since Aug. 26, 1976, when they improved to 83-42 with a win at Cincinnati. It was Philadelphia’s first four-game sweep at Cincinnati since May 13-16, 1916.

Martinez’s third homer landed in the fourth row of right-field seats in the seventh, giving the Phillies a 6-1 lead. It came against Jared Burton, who was making his first appearance of the year.

“What really hurt was the home run by Martinez,” Baker said. “Heisey hit that big home run to make it close. We missed Heisey, big time.”

Philadelphia won seven of eight games against the Reds this season to improve to 30-12 against them over the last six seasons.

Howard hit a solo shot to left-center on a 3-1 pitch from Leake in the sixth, giving Philadelphia a 4-1 lead and extending his streak of consecutive seasons with at least 30 homers and 100 RBIs to six.

NOTES: The Reds promoted INFs Juan Francisco and Chris Valaika, RHPs Jared Burton and Carlos Fisher, LHPs Jeremy Horst and Matt Maloney and C Devin Mesoraco from Triple-A Louisville before the game. OF Fred Lewis cleared waivers and was outrighted to Louisville. … The Reds left after the game for their second consecutive 10-day, nine-game road trip, starting with three in St. Louis. NL ERA-leader Johnny Cueto, coming off a career-high 11-strikeout performance on Sunday, is Cincinnati’s scheduled starter on Friday. … The Phillies headed to Florida for a three-game series with the Marlins. RHP Roy Oswalt, a 6-5 loser to Florida last Friday, is scheduled to start for Philadelphia.

“There is a big-time small margin for error against them,” Reds manager Dusty Baker said. “If you don’t take advantage of chances which are rare, you don’t have much of a chance. They rarely help you out with a walk. They pound the strike zone and throw quality strikes.”

Mike Leake (11-9) gave up four runs and seven hits in six innings for Cincinnati, which had won six of seven coming into the series. Leake struck out six and walked one.

“Leake threw the ball pretty good,” Baker said. “They got a some bloops and infield hits.”

Philadelphia got to Leake for three runs in the second inning. Brian Schneider, pitcher Vance Worley and Shane Victorino each had an RBI single.

“I was falling behind,” Leake said. “I wasn’t attacking like I did the rest of the game.”

It could have been worse for the Reds but center fielder Drew Stubbs cut down Schneider when he tried to score on Worley’s bouncer up the middle.

The Reds snapped their streak of consecutive scoreless innings at 21 in the bottom half. Brandon Phillips doubled to left, advanced to third on Edgar Renteria’s groundout to shortstop and scored on Joey Votto’s sacrifice fly to center.

Worley (10-1) allowed four runs and eight hits, struck out seven and walked one. The first six of his Ks came on called third strikes, most of them on sinkers, he said.

The Phillies improved to 15-2 in Worley’s 17 starts this season and have won each of his last 13, their longest streak since they won a club-record 15 consecutive Steve Carlton starts in 1972.

Worley was cruising before the Reds opened their seventh with three consecutive hits. Stubbs doubled and Ryan Hanigan singled before pinch-hitter Heisey hit an opposite-field drive to right to get Cincinnati within two.

Heisey was activated from the disabled list before the game. He had been out since Aug. 7 with a strained left oblique.

Michael Martinez hit a two-run homer to help the Phillies (87-46) move 41 games over .500 for the first time since Aug. 26, 1976, when they improved to 83-42 with a win at Cincinnati. It was Philadelphia’s first four-game sweep at Cincinnati since May 13-16, 1916.

Martinez’s third homer landed in the fourth row of right-field seats in the seventh, giving the Phillies a 6-1 lead. It came against Jared Burton, who was making his first appearance of the year.

“What really hurt was the home run by Martinez,” Baker said. “Heisey hit that big home run to make it close. We missed Heisey, big time.”

Philadelphia won seven of eight games against the Reds this season to improve to 30-12 against them over the last six seasons.

Howard hit a solo shot to left-center on a 3-1 pitch from Leake in the sixth, giving Philadelphia a 4-1 lead and extending his streak of consecutive seasons with at least 30 homers and 100 RBIs to six.

NOTES: The Reds promoted INFs Juan Francisco and Chris Valaika, RHPs Jared Burton and Carlos Fisher, LHPs Jeremy Horst and Matt Maloney and C Devin Mesoraco from Triple-A Louisville before the game. OF Fred Lewis cleared waivers and was outrighted to Louisville. … The Reds left after the game for their second consecutive 10-day, nine-game road trip, starting with three in St. Louis. NL ERA-leader Johnny Cueto, coming off a career-high 11-strikeout performance on Sunday, is Cincinnati’s scheduled starter on Friday. … The Phillies headed to Florida for a three-game series with the Marlins. RHP Roy Oswalt, a 6-5 loser to Florida last Friday, is scheduled to start for Philadelphia.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago Cubs are really rolling now. Even little Tony Campana has a homer, and manager Mike Quade called it before the game.

Campana drove in a pair of runs with an inside-the-park homer and the Cubs beat the Cincinnati Reds 4-3 on Friday for their sixth consecutive victory.

“It was fun,” he said. “Got out there and had a chance to play. Every time I get out there, I just try to make things exciting. I think I did that today.”

It was the first major league homer for the 5-foot-8, 165-pound Campana, who also singled, doubled and made a nice catch in center field. Campana became the first Cub to hit an inside-the-park shot at Wrigley Field for his first homer.

It also came shortly after Quade, while discussing Chicago’s recent power surge before the game, predicted Campana would get one against the Reds.

“As soon as it happened, I looked at (bench coach) Pat (Listach) and said, `You’re not going to believe this,”‘ Quade said.

“What a day (Campana) had, huh? Little son of a gun got off the plane – I don’t even know if he slept – and did one heck of a job.”

Ryan Dempster (9-8) struggled with his control, matching his season high with six walks, but held the Reds to two runs and four hits in six innings.

“It was all right,” Dempster said. “I felt like I battled good. One minute I felt like I could throw the ball where I want, the next I was hoping to hit somewhere around the plate.”

Carlos Marmol worked the ninth for his 24th save in 31 chances and third in as many days. He is 5 for 5 since he returned to the closer role after being temporarily removed from the back end of games because of control problems.

“He wanted in bad,” Quade said. “He’s been though his struggles. He’s pitching well and I think he had something to prove here at home. When my closer comes to me and tells me that, he’s in.”

Ramon Hernandez homered for Cincinnati, which has lost three of four since a three-game sweep of the San Francisco Giants. Brandon Phillips and rookie Yonder Alonso each had two hits, but the Reds picked up their 26th one-run loss of the season, most in the majors.

“Seems like we can’t get the big hit when we need a clutch hit,” Reds manager Dusty Baker said.

Reds starter Mike Leake (9-7) allowed three runs and six hits in six innings. He also had an RBI single in Cincinnati’s two-run fourth that trimmed Chicago’s lead to 3-2.

“I was missing some spots early, but then I locked in a little bit,” Leake said.

The Cubs jumped on Leake in the first. Starlin Castro hit a leadoff single and Campana followed with a slicing drive that landed inside the left-field line, bounced off the brick wall in foul territory and rolled past stumbling left fielder Alonso.

Campana, among the fastest players in baseball, zipped around the bases and scored standing up before the Reds could even return the ball to the infield, electrifying the crowd while some fans were still looking for their seats.

“I hit the ball and the first thing I thought is that the third baseman is going to catch it,” Campana said. “Then it got behind and I thought, `OK, that’s a double.’ Then saw the guy hit the wall and I thought I had a chance to get all the way around.”

It was the Cubs’ first inside-the-park homer at Wrigley Field since Sammy Sosa accomplished the feat against the Pirates on Oct. 6, 2001.

Campana, who is from Kettering, Ohio, and played college ball at the University of Cincinnati, never homered in 1,308 plate appearances in the minor leagues, though he said he did have an inside-the-parker in a Double-A playoff game last season.

“I always a hard time from guys in the minors saying no way I’m ever going to hit a home run,” Campana said. “It was an inside-the-parker, so I guess so far they’re right.”

Colvin added his fourth homer in the second inning, a drive into the right-field bleachers. It was his fourth career homer off Leake. “It’s just one of those things,” Colvin said. “I’ve been fortunate enough to get pitches I should hit off of him and that’s pretty much it.”

Castro also singled in the second and eighth, upping his NL-best hit total to 146.

Hernandez struck out to leave the bases loaded in the first, but the Reds rallied with two out in the fourth. With runners on first and second, Leake hit a shallow fly to center. Campana raced in and made a diving attempt, but the ball popped out of his glove when he struck the ground, allowing Alonso to score. Frazier then scored on a wild pitch.

“It was in my glove,” Campana said of his near-miss. “I blame my glove.”

Campana got another chance in the seventh and hauled in Phillips’ deep drive to center just left of the 400-foot sign.

“When he first hit it, I thought it was gone,” Campana said. “So I just turned my back and started running and peeked up said, `I think I’m going to have a shot at it.”‘

Carlos Pena added a sacrifice fly in the bottom half, but Hernandez connected against Kerry Wood in the eighth. Hernandez’s 11th homer cut Chicago’s lead to 4-3.

But the day belonged to

CINCINNATI — The Cincinnati Reds took care of business early to help Mike Leake get a big win Saturday.

They scored five first-inning runs on their way to a 7-2 win against the San Francisco Giants.

Seven players each had a hit for the Reds on their way to a second consecutive win for just the second time since sweeping the Los Angeles Dodgers in a three-game series in Cincinnati June 13-15. Cincinnati won the series opener 4-3 in 13 innings Friday.

“It helped to score those first inning runs,” Dusty Baker said. “We haven’t been scoring a lot of runs lately.”

Leake, who leads the Reds in wins despite spending 13 days with Triple-A Louisville in May, earned his career-high ninth. The second-year right-hander, winner of eight games as a rookie in 2010, allowed eight hits and two runs — one earned — with no walks and seven strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings.

“I’m not going to stop there,” Leake said.

The right-hander had quality starts in his past two outings but both resulted in losses as his teammates scored just three runs total, including a shutout loss to Pittsburgh.

“As a pitcher you never complain about runs,” Leake said. “Our offense is coming around.”

The Giants loaded the bases with one out against Leake in the seventh, but left-hander Bill Bray came on to get Carlos Beltran to fly out to left and Pablo Sandoval to ground out to third.

“Bray was outstanding against the middle of their order,” Baker said.

Beltran flied out in the ninth and is 1-for-14 in three games with the Giants since being traded from the Mets on Thursday.

Logan Ondrusek and Nick Masset added a shutout inning for the Reds.

The Reds pounced on an uncharacteristically wild Madison Bumgarner for five hits and five runs in sending 11 batters to the plate in the first inning. Brandon Phillips drove in the first run with a single to left, and Jay Bruce and Chris Heisey followed with back-to-back two-run singles up the middle.

Heisey, who is seeing most of the playing time since Jonny Gomes was traded to Washington, can feel the offense heating up.

“At any point, I think our offense can take off,” Heisey said. “We didn’t have a lot of key hits lately but were able to sting them together tonight. As a hitter, you hate to see a guy battling out there when you’re not scoring runs.

Bumgarner, who hadn’t walked more than one batter in any of his previous 10 starts and none in his three most recent appearances, didn’t help himself with two walks in the inning. The left-hander also hit Miguel Cairo while throwing 40 pitches, 23 for strikes.

The Giants got one run back on Sandoval’s 446-foot home run into the right-center field seats leading off the second, his 11th homer of the season and second in three games, but the Reds capitalized on two Giants errors to add to two unearned runs in the fourth.

Then Reds shortstop Edgar Renteria committed two errors in the fifth to hand San Francisco a gift run.

The veteran went to talk to Leake after his second error.

“You know he doesn’t want to make them,” Leake said. “He came in just to pick me up. When I was younger, I would have gotten angry but at some point you learn to deal with it.”

Leake, who spent no time in the minor leagues until his stint in May worked out of the jam.

“That’s the sign of a good pitcher, when you can pitch yourself out of trouble,” Baker said. “He has a lot of weapons. He has the pitches to get a double play. He’s not a strikeout pitcher but can get them when he needs to.”

Bumgarner (6-10) lasted four innings, allowing seven hits and seven runs — five earned — with three walks and four strikeouts. He also was called for a balk.

Notes: Left-hander Aroldis Chapman hasn’t allowed a hit in 8-23 innings in his past seven appearances, the longest single-season stretch by a Reds reliever since Chuck McElroy went 11 1/3 innings from April 25-May 17, 1994, according to Elias Sports Bureau. Chapman has retired 25 of the past 26 batters he’s faced, with one walk and 13 strikeouts. … Giants manager Bruce Bochy planned to give first Aubrey Huff Saturday and today off after he played all 13 innings Friday after the team’s 2:30 a.m. arrival from Philadelphia. … Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips extended his hitting streak to nine games (13-for-38, .342), the team’s longest current streak.