THREE UP
Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 572nd homer, a solo shot off the Nationals’ Levale Speigner, in the Reds’ 8-7 victory that put him within one of Harmon Killebrew for eighth on the career list. He now has 1,635 RBIs, one behind fomer Cubs great Ernie Banks for 19th on the career list.
After the Mariners loaded the bases in the ninth off Roberto Hernandez, Indians closer Joe Borowski came on and got Ichiro Suzuki to hit into an RBI forceout before getting Jose Vidro to pop up and Jose Guillen to ground out for his 14th save in the Indians’ 5-2 win.
One day after hanging 14 runs on the Astros, the Rangers did it again — this time to the Twins in a 14-4 victory. Light-hitting catcher Gerald Laird hit a grand slam in an eight-run fifth and Sammy Sosa drove in three runs with a pair of doubles, giving him 35 RBIs.
THREE DOWN
Tim Wakefield struggled with his knuckleball in the Red Sox’s 6-2 loss to the Yankees. He yielded six runs on nine hits with five walks. Alex Rodriguez started the onslaught with a two-run bomb in the first, his 18th. Robinson Cano doubled in two in the fifth to end it.
Center fielder Nook Logan and right fielder Austin Kearns of the Nationals let Scott Hatteberg’s fly drop for an RBI double ahead of John Valentin’s winning homer off Jon Rauch in the eighth inning of the Reds’ 8-7 win, dropping the Nats to 13 games below .500. …
Dodgers starter Brett Tomko fell to 1-5 and saw his ERA climb to 6.28 after throwing 107 pitches in 5 1?3 innings and yielding five runs and eight hits in a 9-5 loss to the Brewers. Prince Fielder hit his 13th HR and Johnny Estrada his sixth off the Dodgers starter.
