Griffey Continues His Extra-Bases Barrage

Ken Griffey Jr. hit his AL-leading 34th home run and David Segui, left off the All-Star team earlier in the day, hit two homers as the Seattle Mariners beat the Colorado Rockies, 9-5, Wednesday night at Seattle.

Griffey also had three doubles, giving him a major league-leading 56 extra-base hits. His two-run shot off Mike Saipe (0-1) in the third inning pulled him within three homers of Mark McGwire, who leads the majors with 37.

Segui gave Seattle consecutive homers and a 5-1 lead when he followed Griffey’s shot with a 439-foot blast to right-center in the third.

Edgar Martinez also homered for the Mariners, who lead the majors with 133 homers even though they’re in last place in the AL West.

Ken Cloude (4-7), who had lost his last six decisions, got his first victory since April 24. He gave up five runs and five hits in 5 1/3 innings, including homers to Vinny Castilla and Todd Helton.

Seattle relievers Greg McCarthy, Bobby Ayala and Mike Timlin combined for 3 2/3 innings of scoreless, three-hit relief.

Boston 6, Montreal 1--Bret Saberhagen pitched seven innings of three-hit ball and Nomar Garciaparra extended his hitting streak to 22 games at Boston.

Saberhagen (10-5) retired the first 10 batters and had still faced the minimum before Shane Andrews homered with one out in the sixth. That was the only run allowed by the two-time Cy Young Award winner, who struck out five and walked none.

Dustin Hermanson (6-7) lasted only 4 2/3 innings, giving up five runs and eight hits. He walked five, and two of his runs were unearned as the Expos, who made four errors Tuesday night, had one error, a passed ball and two wild pitches.

Minnesota 2, Cincinnati 1--Brad Radke, Minnesota’s lone All-Star representative, got his ninth victory at Cincinnati.

Radke (9-6) gave up nine hits and struck out four in six innings after being named to his first All-Star team earlier in the day. Rick Aguilera pitched a perfect ninth for his 17th save.

The Twins took advantage of some shoddy fielding to take a 2-1 lead in the seventh.

Terry Steinbach singled off Cincinnati reliever Scott Sullivan (1-4) and scored from first on Denny Hocking’s looper to center. Rookie Mike Frank tried to make a play on the ball and managed to knock it down, but then had to chase it into left field as Steinbach scored easily.

Atlanta 6, Tampa Bay 5--Chipper Jones’ second homer of the game--a two-run, two-out shot off Roberto Hernandez in the ninth inning--gave the Braves the victory at St. Petersburg, Fla.

Jones lined a 1-and-1 pitch over the right-field wall after Walt Weiss singled off Hernandez (0-3), who was trying to protect a 5-4 lead the Devil Rays took with two runs in the eighth.

New York Yankees 5, Philadelphia 2--Tino Martinez homered and drove in four runs, and David Wells celebrated his first All-Star selection by pitching the Yankees past the Phillies at New York.

The Yankees won for the sixth time in seven games and improved to 12-3 against NL teams, the best interleague mark in the majors.

Wells (11-2) gave up one earned run in seven innings, won for eighth time in nine starts and also extended his streak without a walk to 36 innings.

Phillie reliever Ricky Bottalico, put on the disabled list April 23 because of right elbow trouble, was activated and pitched a scoreless eighth.

Florida 5, Baltimore 3--The Marlins handed the Orioles their eighth straight loss, getting another solid pitching performance from Livan Hernandez at Baltimore.

Hernandez (7-4) gave up three runs and 10 hits in 7 2/3 innings. It was the fourth straight victory for the right-hander, who has pitched into the seventh inning in each of his last eight starts.

Cleveland 5, Milwaukee 2--Jim Thome and Omar Vizquel drove in two runs apiece and Kenny Lofton had three hits at Milwaukee as the Indians ended a three-game losing streak.

Dave Burba (10-5) gave up two runs and four hits in 6 2/3 innings, and Mike Jackson pitched the ninth for his 18th save.

Kansas City 6, St. Louis 4--Tim Belcher won for the fifth time in six decisions and Jeff Conine and Dean Palmer each had three RBIs at St. Louis.

Both teams being below .500 took some of the luster off their first meeting in St. Louis since the 1985 I-70 World Series. The paid attendance of 36,144 for the second game of a three-game set was the Cardinals’ lowest gate since May 28.

Most fans that did show up also seemed more excited about watching Mark McGwire, who was hitless in three at-bats.

San Diego 8, Oakland 4--Greg Vaughn hit his 28th homer, a controversial three-run shot, and Kevin Brown got his 10th win at Oakland.

Vaughn got credit for his fourth-inning homer after an appeal to the umpires--who first ruled the ball had hit the center-field wall and was in play.

Toronto 15, New York Mets 10--Alex Gonzalez hit a go-ahead, three-run homer in an eight-run eighth inning as the Blue Jays had their biggest offensive day of the season at Toronto.

Met starter Hideo Nomo left after the third because of a lower back strain. He gave up three earned runs and four hits, walked three and struck out three.

Houston 10, Chicago White Sox 4--Moises Alou drove in four runs and Sean Berry tied his career-high with four hits at Houston.

Alou hit a two-run double in the first inning and a two-run homer in the seventh, giving him eight RBIs over the last two games and four homers in his last 11 at-bats.

Detroit 9, Pittsburgh 1--Seth Greisinger held Pittsburgh to five hits over eight innings at Pittsburgh for his first major league victory.