(My Sportsbook) - Searching for their second consecutive sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals, the Cincinnati Reds finish up their three-game series at Busch Stadium today.

Cincinnati is on fire with eight wins in its last nine games to move into a tie with Houston for second place in the NL Central. The Reds still remain 2 1/2 games back of first-place Chicago.

On Wednesday, the Reds posted a 4-0 victory to give them wins in six straight 2003 meetings with St. Louis. Danny Graves tossed his first career shutout to pace the Reds to the victory. In just his 12th career start, Graves (3-2) allowed four hits on 117 pitches for the Reds. The converted reliever walked one and struck out one.

Austin Kearns finished with two hits, including a three-run homer, and drove in all four runs for Cincinnati. Ken Griffey Jr. finished with a double and scored once in his first start for the Reds since dislocating his right shoulder during the first week of the season.

Cincy will hand the ball to 27-year-old John Riedling this afternoon. Riedling struggled in his last start, giving up six hits and six runs (five earned) over four innings against Milwaukee. The righthander walked and struck out three in the losing effort.

Riedling has been very good against the Cardinals in his career, tallying a 1-0 mark with a 0.71 ERA. He has allowed just one earned run over 12 2/3 innings of action versus St. Louis.

Cincinnati owns a 14-11 advantage in this series since the start of the 2002 season, but the Cards are 13-9 at home against the Reds since the beginning of the 2001 campaign.