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Griffey homers but Wolf baffles Reds

May 23, 2008 - 5:37 AM By Tim Powers PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

SAN DIEGO (Ticker) -- Randy Wolf pitched seven solid innings and the San Diego Padres belted four home runs en route to an 8-2 victory over the Cincinnati Reds in the opener of a four-game series on Thursday night.

Khalil Greene hit a pair of homers for the struggling Padres, who had scored three runs or less in five straight games - losing four.

"It's nice to come back after a symbolically low point," Greene said. "We did a lot of things well."

Kevin Kouzmanoff paired with Greene in the seventh for San Diego's first set of back-to-back homers this season.

Adrian Gonzalez also homered, giving the Padres their first four-homer game at Petco Park since August 2, 2007.

"It was a little bit of a power surge," Padres manager Bud Black said. "The offense picked us up, and Randy did a great job going seven."

The Reds jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead against Wolf (3-4) when Ken Griffey Jr. hit a two-run home run in the first inning - the 598th of his career and 200th with Cincinnati.

But Wolf settled down quickly, retiring the next 10 batters in order following Griffey's blast.

The 31-year-old lefthander allowed just the two runs and four hits while walking one and striking out nine to earn his first win in his last four decisions.

"It's tough to make that mistake (to Griffey) early and put us in a hole, but luckily we were able to keep them there and were able to score some runs tonight," Wolf said. "Guys put together some good swings and we got some runs out of it. It got contagious."

Cincinnati starter Aaron Harang (2-6) held San Diego scoreless until the decisive fifth inning, when Brian Giles drove in Tadahito Iguchi with a single to center field and later scored on Gonzalez's two-run blast as the Padres forged a 3-2 lead.

Greene's solo homer in the sixth and an RBI single by Wolf pushed San Diego's advantage to 5-2, before the back-to-back homers in the seventh accounted for the final score.

"I rushed on everything," Harang said. "I wasn't executing my pitches and I was leaving pitches up, and they were hitting them."

Harang allowed five runs on 10 hits in 5 1/3 innings for the Reds, who have lost four straight games. The San Diego native walked two and struck out seven, suffering his first loss in five starts in his hometown.

"We didn't make very good pitches tonight and we didn't hit very well either," Reds manager Dusty Baker said. "Any time you give up four home runs in this ballpark, you know you made some mistakes."