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CINCINNATI — On a night the Cincinnati Reds should have been celebrating another pitching tapestry by Edinson Volquez, the evening's events were clouded by the wreckage of Jeff Keppinger's knee.

As he has done in all eight starts, Volquez held the opposition to one run or less, this time mesmerizing the first-place Florida Marlins on one run and seven hits over six innings Tuesday night in Great American Ball Park.

The bullpen protected Volquez and he moved to 6-1 with a 5-3 victory and is only the second pitcher in history to start a season's first eight games giving up one or less run in each start, matching Oakland's Mike Norris in 1980.

"That's some big-time company right there," said manager Dusty Baker.

All that was obliterated by the loss of Keppinger after he fouled a ball off his left knee in the second inning. He gamely stayed in the game until the third inning, then X-rays revealed a fracture.

That gives the Reds two broken-kneed shortstops — Keppinger and Alex Gonzalez, out all season with a broken left knee.

Jerry Hairston Jr. finished the game at shortstop, but the Reds are likely to call up shortstop Paul Janish, who is on the 40-man roster and is hitting .293 at Class AAA Louisville, with no major-league experience.

Janish batted twice Tuesday and drove in two runs before he was removed from the game — probably to go pack.

Keppinger takes more than a .324 average out of the lineup. Gone is his team-play style, his competitiveness and his willingness to do the small necessities.

In short, he was the team's best player — period, paragraph, next subject.

"That's a big blow, a real big blow," said Baker. "You have two choices. You can feel sorry for yourself or you can figure out a way to get the job done. They said it could have been worse — a worse fracture than it could have been, but he'll have an MRI (today) to see."

The Reds didn't make an announcement about Janish, even though he was pulled from Louisville's lineup and Baker said, "He is one of the candidates. He's a good one.

"He's a slick fielder, a big-time slick fielder. He has some sock in his bat, especially on high fastballs," said Baker.

Baker also mentioned Hairston as the shortstop and said, "I can start Hairston at shortstop and move him to another position late in the game and get Janish's defense in there.

"That's the value of having players who can play more than one position and Janish is another product from our improving farm system," Baker added.

The Reds pecked away at Florida lefthander Mark Hendrickson, 5-1 when the night began, a guy who figured to be troublesome because the Reds were 4-8 in games started by lefthanders.

They scored two in the first on a bases-loaded infield hustle single by Ryan Freel and a bases loaded walk Keppinger — after he broke his knee with the foul ball. And he RAN to first base. He didn't trot. He RAN.

The Reds made it 3-0 in the third on Adam Dunn's grounder that scored Edwin Encarnacion from third.

Florida scored a run off Volquez in the fifth with three singles and Hanley Ramirez's sacrifice fly, but Volquez escaped a bases-loaded and two-out situation by striking out ever-dangerous Dan Uggla.

"That was a change-up, probably my best pitch of the night," said Volquez.

The Reds retrieved the run in the bottom of the fifth when catcher David Ross dropped a perfect safety squeeze bunt up the third base line that scored Jerry Hairston Jr.

Jared Burton replaced Volquez in the seventh and the Marlins scored one on Uggla's single after a bunt single by Alfredo Amezaga, cut Cincinnati's lead to 4-2.

Joey Votto's opposite-field home run leading off the seventh was comfort for the bullpen and Votto's eighth homer, most by a rookie in the National League.

Cody Ross, a player who wore a Reds uniform for about three minutes in 2006, hit a pinch-hit home run in the eighth off David Weathers to make it 5-3.

Asked if he was surprised by his eight starts of one run or less, Volquez smiled and said, "No, I can't be surprised because that's what I'm always looking for. That's what I want to do. No runs."

That's what all pitchers look for, but few find it. Volquez is about to patent it.

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