"The Reds seemed poised to close out a very nice homestand on Thursday. That is, right up until Edinson Volquez took the mound and started throwing.

"I was all over the place," Volquez said.

However, the Cardinals also lost Thursday, keeping them a game and a half in front of the Reds in the Nationial League Central race.

After being semi-brilliant in his first start back (six innings, one run), Volquez was downright bad in his second.

He went 26 1/3 innings, allowing six runs on five hits, striking out four and walking four as the Reds fell to the Washington Nationals 7-1 before a crowd of 23,115 on sweltering day at Great American Ball Park.

The Reds closed out the homestand with back-to-back losses to the Nationals. The Reds ended 4-3 on the homestand, but it felt worse than that.

"We played so well against Colorado and the first two games of this series," center fielder Drew Stubbs said. "We slipped up the last two days. There's still a lot baseball to be played. We've got to bounce back."

The Reds are 4-7 since July 7. They were a season-high 12 games over at 49-37 and three games up on the St. Louis Cardinals on that day. They are 53-44, two games behind the Cardinals.Volquez was supposed to give the Reds boost for the pennant drive. But Thursday was a stark reminder that he's going to have some bumps along the way.

"He was wild and wide," Reds manager Dusty Baker said. "He was throwing hard. But he had a lot of walks early and a high pitch count."

Volquez's control was an issue from the start. He walked Nyjer Morgan on five pitches to start the game. Morgan stole second, moved to third on flyout and scored on a ground ball.

Not a disaster by any means.

But Volquez's control was worse in the second. He struck out Cristian Guzman, then walked Willie Harris, Adam Kennedy and Wil Nieves to load the bases. Pitcher Livan Hernandez singled to left to score Harris. Morgan hit a ground ball to short, but with his speed the Reds could only get one out, allowing another run to score."