Padres Complete Sweep of Reds With 2-1 Victory

Ken Caminiti hit his first homer since April 23 and Kevin Brown matched his career high with 10 strikeouts as the Padres beat the Cincinnati Reds, 2-1, Wednesday night to complete a sweep of the three-game series.

Caminiti’s eighth homer of the season--and 100th in four seasons with San Diego--tied the score at 1-1 in the sixth and Wally Joyner singled in Quilvio Veras with the go-ahead run with one out in the eighth.

Veras greeted reliever Jeff Shaw (1-3) with a leadoff single and went all the way to third when Shaw’s errant pickoff throw bounced off his helmet and almost rolled into the Reds’ bullpen along the right-field line.

The Padres have won four straight and, coupled with San Francisco’s loss to Seattle, regained a share of the NL West lead.

The Padres had been alone in the lead from April 8 until falling into second place on Saturday.

San Diego improved to 8-1 against Cincinnati this year and sent the Reds to their season-high fifth straight loss.

Brown (6-3), who yielded one run and nine hits, improved to 6-0 in seven starts against the Reds.

With one out in the sixth, Caminiti hit a towering, 403-foot drive into the seats in right field.

Caminiti, recently bothered by a sore back, had been in a 6 for 35 slump and had only one hit in 17 at-bats against Harnisch, his former teammate with Houston.

While watching Caminiti’s homer leave the park, Harnisch backed off the mound and pumped his arm in disgust.

The Reds had four infield singles off Brown in the first three innings, including one to deep short Dmitri Young leading off the second. He advanced to third on Nieves’ infield single and a throwing error by second baseman Veras and scored on rookie Pat Watkins’ single.

Harnisch now has three no-decisions against the Padres, including two in the season’s first seven games. He gave up one run and three hits, struck out eight and walked three.

Reds second baseman Bret Boone left the game in the fifth inning with a sore right wrist suffered on a ball hit by Steve Finley in the third.