• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Griffey homers twice, but Mariners rally for win

Jun 25, 2007 - 12:54 AM SEATTLE (Ticker) -- It was just about a perfect game for fans of the Seattle Mariners, who packed Safeco Field for perhaps their last glimpse of their returning idol, Ken Griffey, Jr.

Griffey smacked two home runs to the sustained cheers of a sellout crowd, but the Mariners used some 'little ball' to beat the Cincinnati Reds, 3-2, Sunday afternoon.

Willie Bloomquist's suicide squeeze in the seventh inning scored Yuniesky Betancourt with the tiebreaking run and the Mariners wound up taking two of their three games with the Reds to end interleague play with a 9-9 record.

Betancourt led off the seventh with a double off Reds starter Bronson Arroyo (2-9), and Jamie Burke bunted back to Arroyo, who tried and failed to get Betancourt at third. Bloomquist then bunted the first pitch in front of the plate, allowing the charging Betancourt to score for a 3-2 lead.

"I was aware it (the suicide squeeze) might be called and it's my role to handle the bat and I was glad I was able to get it down," said Bloomquist, who started in left field in place of Raul Ibanez, sidelined with a right hamstring injury suffered Saturday night.

But even though the Mariners pulled out the win, the day was all about Griffey and his return to the city where he enjoyed his greatest success. And, in a surprise comment, he indicated he would not mind ending his career as a Mariner.

"It was nice to come back and I really enjoyed the four days I was here," Griffey said. "I always thought I would be back and as an athlete you always want to retire with the team that you started with. I'm no different than anybody else. But I've got a few more years, so I don't think it's anytime soon.

Rookie Eric O'Flaherty (4-0) relieved starter Miguel Batista and pitched a scoreless seventh for the win. George Sherrill got two outs and J.J. Putz worked the final 1 1/3 innings for his 21st consecutive save this year and 23rd in a row.

The loss was the seventh in a row for Arroyo, a personal high. The hard-luck righthander has not won since May 6 and is 0-7 in his last nine starts.

"I would like to have seen us win the ballgame with Griffey having the day he had," Reds manager Jim Narron said.

Griffey, who was 2-for-9 with five strikeouts in the first two games, thrilled a third consecutive sellout crowd of 46,064 when he hit Batista's 2-0 offering over the left-center field fence in the first inning for his 20th homer and a 1-0 lead. The ball ticked off left fielder Bloomquist's glove as he made a leaping attempt and Griffey stood for several seconds between first and second until it was finally ruled a home run.

Griffey connected again off Batista with two outs in the fifth, slamming the first pitch 428 feet off the second deck in right field for his 584th career homer for a 2-0 lead to break a tie with Mark McGwire and put him alone in seventh place on the all-time list.

"It's just one of those things that happens," Griffey said. "You play long enough and hit a few out and one of these days you catch people."

Seattle tied it 2-2 when Ichiro Suzuki led off the sixth with an infield hit and Jose Lopez singled him to second. Jose Vidro's sacrifice moved both runners along. Ichiro was tagged out in a rundown on a grounder to third by Richie Sexson, who wound up at second. Ben Broussard followed with a ground-rule double which bounced over the center field fence to score two runs.

Despite the loss, Narron had nothing but good things to say about Arroyo.

"I thought Bronson pitched as well as he has all year," Narron said. "He made one mistake there to Broussard, but he worked out of a couple of jams. I thought he threw much better than he has the last couple of times out.

Suzuki was two-for-three to extend his major league leading hitting streak to 19 games.

Batista, seeking to end a two-game losing streak, went six innings, allowing just five hits, walking two and striking out four.