• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Griffey moves into 10th on all-time home run list

Apr 25, 2007 - 5:23 AM ST. LOUIS (Ticker) -- Alex Gonzalez woke up to keep the St. Louis Cardinals slumbering.

Gonzalez slugged two homers and Aaron Harang pitched into the eighth inning as the Cincinnati Reds posted a 10-3 victory over the Cardinals in the opener of a three-game series

Ken Griffey Jr. belted his 564th home run to surpass Reggie Jackson for 10th on the all-time list for Cincinnati, which opened a nine-game road trip with a victory after losing four of its previous five games.

"Reggie has been there on and off the field for me," Griffey said. "My name and his name mentioned in the same breath is overwhelming. To pass him is mind-boggling. I didn't think that when I started playing this game 19 years ago that I would be anywhere close to where I am now."

Gonzalez, who entered batting .255 with a homer and six RBI this season, belted a two-run homer in the second against St. Louis starter Kip Wells and added a three-run blast in the fifth to complete the fourth two-homer game of his career.

"It's very special. It was a great night for me," Gonzalez said. "But for everybody, we did a great job tonight. We're just going to try to do the same thing tomorrow."

Gonzalez, who also doubled and singled, finished 4-for-5 with four runs and drove in five runs for the third time in his career. He also made the play of the game in the sixth, going deep in the hole between third and shortstop and making a jump-throw to nip Albert Pujols.

"Everybody talks about his defense all the time," Reds manager Jerry Narron said. "I really believe that he's capable of having a really good year offensively." He's had a 20 home run season before. It's nice to see him break out tonight."

Harang (3-0), who led the National League with six complete games last season, surrendered two runs and five hits in 7 2/3 innings with two walks and five strikeouts to improve to 4-6 all-time against the Cardinals. After allowing a walk and single to lead off the third, he retired three straight.

"Hopefully we can keep this rolling this whole road trip," Harang said. "I was able to throw strikes and get groundouts. It just felt really good. The defense played great behind me. It's a little bit easier too when you jump out to a lead and you can just settle down and throw strikes."

Griffey drilled a first-pitch offering from Wells deep over the right field fence for a two-run homer in the fifth. It was his first of the season in his 54th at-bat.

Wells (1-4) entered having allowed three earned runs or fewer three times while pitching at least six innings in each of his four starts, but he was clobbered by the Reds.

Wells was tagged for eight runs and nine hits - including three home runs - in 4 2/3 innings to drop to 2-9 in 18 career starts against Cincinnati.

"It's pretty obvious that I didn't make too many good pitches judging by the quality of swings that those guys took," Wells said. "I missed in the middle of the plate a lot and they did a good job of taking advantage of it. It's just not the way you want to start the homestand."

After its dormant offense broke out for 12 runs in a 10-inning victory Sunday against the Chicago Cubs, the St. Louis offense struggled again. The Cardinals managed just two runs and seven hits - six in the final two frames when the club was down by seven runs. Prior to Sunday's contest, they had scored only 50 runs in their first 17 games.

"We had a tough night offensively," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. "He (Wells) had a tough night on the mound. And they didn't. They had a good night. You have to give credit to Harang. The catcher put the glove down and he hit the target. I think he pitched well. Let's see if we can get even tomorrow and play the rubber game on Thursday."

Scott Spiezio and Chris Duncan had RBI singles for St. Louis, which has started a season 1-7 at home for the first time since 1969.