The Reds handed the Cardinals the most unexpected of losses on Friday, holding the offensive juggernauts scoreless while coming through with only a single run of their own to win 1-0.

Aaron Harang was the man, giving up four hits on seven innings pitched to get the win. Furthermore, he's the one responsible for knocking in Austin Kearns in the fifth inning to give the Reds their score.

Kent Mercker pitched a third of an inning, Todd Coffey finished off the eighth, and David Weathers took over in the ninth to continue the scoreless outing. The eighth inning was a little dicey. Harang started it off and walked his first batter, Aaron Miles. Mercker came in to get Skip Schumaker out on a sacrifice bunt and then walk David Eckstein. Coffey came in with two men on. He struck out Juan Encarnación, and limited the mighty Albert Pujols to a single. So facing the bases loaded and reknowned-pain-in-the-Reds'-collective-ass Jim Edmonds at the plate, Coffey demonstrated the bad-assedness that can only come from eating metric tons of Jell-o and struck the guy out.

Helluva game, and certainly the one I'll bring up over and over again when talking baseball with Ms. Scratcher. Pujols will have worn a hole in the left-field stands from all the home runs he hit there, and I'll just say “Harang beat Carpenter 0-1.” In fact, I've already done it a few times.

The win brought the Reds' record to 7-3 and gave them first place in NLC. They would continue the series in St. Louis with Dave Williams taking on Sydney Ponson on Saturday.