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CINCINNATI — The grin on Jolbert Cabrera's face was as wide as both batter's boxes and he placed a finger in front of his lips and said, "Shhhh. Don't tell Lou Piniella. That's two walk-offs for me against him."

Cabrera should know, Piniella is like an elephant (only meaner). He doesn't forget.

The latest was a Sunday thriller in Great American Ball Park, a three-run ninth-inning rally that ended abruptly when Cabrera pulled a line drive single to left scoring the winning run in a 4-3 victory for the Cincinnati Reds over the Chicago Cubs.

The cinema finish was accomplished against Cubs closer Kerry Wood and after Cabrera's single nestled in the left field grass, he pumped his arms and an angry Wood screamed at him for his celebratory display.

"It was a game-winner and I was showing him up," said Cabrera. "He has a reason to be mad, but not at me. I was just doing my job. I'm sure if he strikes me out, he pumps his arm."

Wood had reason to be angry. At himself.

The Reds had only three hits and trailed 3-1 entering the ninth.

Edwin Encarnacion led the ninth with a bloop single to center that skipped past Jim Edmonds for an error that placed Encarnacion on second.

Jay Bruce walked, but Ryan Hanigan forced Encarnacion at third on a sacrifice bunt attempt gone bad. Pinch-hitter Javier Valentin walked on a full-count to fill the bases.

That brought up pinch-hitter Chris Dickerson, who was originally in the starting lineup but was removed just prior to game time with a sore left ankle.

Dickerson shot a two-hopper at shortstop Ronny Cedeno. A game-ending double play? No, the ball took an extremely high hop and deflected off his glove as two runs scored. At first it was ruled an error, then changed to a two-run hit that tied it, 3-3.

Then Cabrera produced.

"Remember that game when I was with Cleveland and we fell behind Seattle, 12-0, when Lou managed Seattle?" said Cabrera. "It was the biggest comeback in major-league history. We came back to win, 15-14."

It was August 5, 2001 and it was also to left field. But it was a broken bat. All this hit did was break a bunch Cubs' fans hearts.

They thought they had this one won. Instead of taking the series two games to one, they lost it two games to one,.

"It felt like we were playing in Chicago," said Cabrera. "Sometimes you have to get lucky and we did (with the Edmonds error and the high bounced at Cedeno). We want these teams to know if they are going to go through us to a championship they are going to have to earn their wings and we're going to make it tough on them."

Speaking of wings, Piniella flew the coop after the game, ducking the media by telling his public relations representative, "Tell them I decline."

Baker, though, was more than happy to chat with the media, which he did, then as they left his office his telephone rang.

It was his wife.

"Yeah, it was a nice win," he said to her.

Baker's wife said something about feeling sorry for Wood, "Because we're close, close to him and his wife."

Said Baker, "Hey, I love Kerry and his wife, too. But we needed this more than he did."

A quick check of the standings reveals that is not the truth.

Before the game, Baker stopped Reds starter Aaron Harang, grasped his elbow, and said, "This is your playoff game. This is a playoff atmosphere, what it is like to be in the playoffs."

And it certainly was that, plus Harang pitched well enough to win — seven innings, three runs, six hits.

To the media before the game, Baker added, "It is our playoffs. This gives us something to chew on."

There was no chewing until the ninth inning, then the Reds spat out the Cubs as most of the 37,540 blue-clad fans fell silent.

"We wanted to win this game to let them know we were coming after them right to the end, right through the last game we played against them, and to let them know we were coming after them next year with a better team," said Baker.

The Reds scored first when Encarnacion singled with one out in the second, took second as Jay Bruce was hit by a pitch, moved to third on a walk to Ryan Hanigan and scored on Corey Patterson's fly to right.

The Cubs tied it in the fourth, scoring only one run despite getting three straight hits to open the inning. The run scored while Geovany Soto was hitting into a 6-4-3 double play.

Amazingly, Harang had not hit a batter in 155 innings this season, not one, not once. In the seventh he hit Soto and Mark DeRosa, back-to-back. And both scored to give the Cubs the 3-1 lead they protected until the ninth.

"I tried to go in on both of them and went too far in," said Harang. "Then I threw a good pitch on the inner half of the plate to Ronny Cedeno and he barely got his bat on the ball the flared it to right field (for a run-scoring single). I stood on the mound and said, 'Are you kidding me?'"

That's what Piniella is saying right now about Wood, about Cabrera and about his team's sixth loss in seven games.