Bruce hit both of those pitches from the Braves right-hander out of Great American Ball Park, his two-run blasts powering the Reds to an 8-2 win to complete a 4-5 trip for the Braves .

Kawakami (1-3) was charged with eight runs and eight hits in 4 2/3 innings, his worst performance since signing a three-year, $23 million contract in January after coming from Japan.

quot;I might be thinking about my control too much right now,quot; Kawakami said through an interpreter. quot;I threw too many in the dirt today. ... I haven't pitched the way I hoped to.quot;

Between pitches he threw in the dirt and ones he threw high in the strike zone, it was not a good day. His ERA climbed by more than two runs, to 7.06.

quot;He started getting his pitches up, his fastball and breaking stuff,quot; said manager Bobby Cox, whose Braves (9-9) start an eight-game homestand today with a series opener against St. Louis, owner of the National League's best record (13-6).

The Braves mustered one run in seven innings Sunday against Micah Owings (1-2), who was 0-9 with an 8.54 ERA since his last win 11 months ago, which also came against the Braves .

Braves catcher David Ross, filling in while Brian McCann is on the disabled list, hit a seventh-inning homer against his former team to end Owings' shutout bid.

But it was far too little and late for the Braves after the hole their starting pitcher put them in.

Things started off well for Kawakami, who didn't give up a hit through three scoreless innings. But in the fourth, he allowed Joey Votto's leadoff double and Bruce's two-run homer on a 1-and-0 fastball.

quot;I really didn't want [him] to pitch to [Bruce],quot; said Ross, who preferred to pitch around Bruce with .136-hitting Edwin Encarnacion on deck. quot;I set up off the plate, hoping [Bruce] would fish for something.quot;

But Kawakami threw a fastball on the outer half of the plate, and Bruce hit it to the left-field seats.

quot;That's where the language barrier might have come into play,quot; Ross said. quot;I'm not sure what he was thinking. It was a bad pitch. I think he got a little [ticked] off after that, a little upset.quot;

Kawakami got out of the inning without further damage but got rocked in the fifth, when the Reds scored six runs and batted around with six hits. Reliever Buddy Carlyle got the last out of the inning.

Kawakami also hit a batter in the fifth, the second one he hit Sunday.

quot;That was just a little fly ball down the line,quot; Cox said of Bruce's first homer. quot;But the next home run wasn't. It was crushed. The cheap home run hurt, but you've got to hold them the next inning.quot;

Kawakami and the Braves also caught an unlucky break in the fifth when a ball hit Reds runner Ramon Hernandez as he was headed to third base on a potential double-play grounder. Instead of a double play, Hernandez was out, and the Reds still had runners at first and second with one out.

One infield hit and one out later, Votto's three-run double started the fifth-inning scoring.

NEXT FOR Braves

* Who: vs. Cardinals

* When: 7 p.m. today

* TV; radio: WPCH, ESPN; 640 AM, 96.1 FM