Reds pummel M’s pitching in 16-1 win

Published 12:31 am Saturday, June 23, 2007

SEATTLE – The ovation for Ken Griffey Jr. never seemed to stop, and neither did the onslaught.

The Cincinnati Reds clubbed five home runs – none of them by the man of the night – in a 16-1 romp over a Seattle Mariners team that seemed as emotionally affected after the pregame ceremony as Griffey was during it.

“It is more than I expected. A lot more than I expected,” Griffey said of the ovations he received before and during the game. “Awesome, if you had to put it into one word. To have that many people cheer for that long was pretty unbelievable.”

So was the outpouring of offense by the Reds.

Brandon Phillips and David Ross each hit two home runs, and Josh Hamilton also homered, as the Reds bolted to a 9-0 lead after three innings and never let up. They also scored six in the sixth, when Phillips and Ross each homered.

Griffey singled and scored in the first inning, hit a fielder’s choice grounder in the second, then struck out three times before being pulled from the game after the Reds had scored their 16th run in the sixth.

“The first at-bat was OK. It was the other four,” Griffey said. “The second at-bat I was just trying to get the guy to second. The last three, I was just trying to hit it as far as I could. I’m kidding. I’m just a little line-drive hitter that the ball travels a little more for than other line-drive hitters.”

The Reds hammered five Mariners pitchers for 16 hits, including starter Ryan Feierabend for nine runs in 22/3 innings and reliever Jason Davis for seven runs in three innings.

Feierabend, newly inserted into the starting rotation, appeared unnerved at the buzz created by every move Griffey made.

The sellout crowd of 46,340, having proclaimed its love for Griffey as early as his first swing of batting practice, didn’t stop when he stepped into the batter’s box for his first at-bat.

Feierabend had hit Brandon Phillips with a pitch with one out, then, as Griffey dug in at the plate, made a pickoff throw to first base. The crowd booed. He threw to first again, and the booing was louder.

Feierabend then threw a pitch that Griffey grounded sharply into right field for a single, moving Phillips to third.

Known for his composure despite being 21, Feierabend was never effective in what became a 42-pitch first inning. Jeff Conine hit a sacrifice fly that scored Phillips, and Feierabend walked the next two hitters, Adam Dunn and Edwin Encarnacion. Alex Gonzalez then drove a double to left field, scoring three runs for a 4-0 lead.

Then it got worse.

Feierabend gave up two more runs in the second inning, allowing two walks and two hits, and three in the third before he was lifted. Ross and Phillips each homered in the inning.

Feierabend said the pregame ceremony didn’t affect his outing as much as his lack of control.

“I was out there doing my normal routine (in the bullpen) and when they’d do something, I’d stop and clap like everybody else,” Feierabend said.

The ceremony for Griffey left many at the ballpark misty-eyed, and Mariners manager Mike Hargrove thought maybe the umpires’ vision was affected as well.

Hargrove didn’t make it out of the second inning, having gotten fed up with plate umpire Mike Winters and his crew after a series of pitches and checked swings that were called strikes for Reds starter Aaron Harang weren’t called for Feierabend.

The Mariners’ Raul Ibanez was called out in the first inning when third-base umpire Bruce Froemming said he went around on a third strike. Ibanez was bewildered in the batter’s box, and Hargrove harped from the dugout.

In the top of the second, Hargrove thought Conine hadn’t checked his swing, although first-base umpire Brian Runge said he did. Conine walked to first base, and Hargrove kept yapping from the dugout.

Finally, Winters had heard enough and ejected Hargrove, who walked to the plate and gave the umpire a nose-to-nose lecture while injecting his opinion of the calls by Froemming and Runge.

“I felt we were getting the short end of the stick on everything,” Hargrove said. “He won.

“It wasn’t the umpiring. We gave up 16 runs and no umpiring crew can do that.”