Griffey’s 29th Homer Helps Stop Padres, 5-3

His struggling team is in last place in the American League West, a division it won a year ago, and is 6-16 in June. Ken Griffey Jr. isn’t giving up, though.

“It ain’t over with,” Griffey said Tuesday night after hitting his league-leading 29th homer and doubling home another run to help the Seattle Mariners defeat the San Diego Padres, 5-3, at Seattle.

“It’s a long season,” Griffey said. “You play 162 games. We could turn it around. Teams go through basically what we’re going through. We could be there at the end.”

Not likely.

The Mariners, 13 games under .500, started the day 15 games behind the division-leading Angels, their biggest deficit since they finished the 1992 season 32 games behind Oakland.

Against National League West-leading San Diego, however, the poor-fielding Mariners didn’t commit an error and got their 11th save in 25 opportunities from their bullpen.

“We just got some breaks today,” Griffey said. “That’s what baseball’s about, getting some breaks. We haven’t had any for the last month. We’ve just got to go out and play and be positive.”

Jamie Moyer (5-6) pitched eight shutout innings.

Kansas City 6, Cincinnati 4--Johnny Damon drove in four runs with the first two-homer game of his career and the Royals held on at Cincinnati, extending the Reds’ losing streak to 10 games.

With a good-luck gorilla in the dugout and miffed hitting coach Ken Griffey Sr. back on the bench, the Reds blew a rare early lead and lost for the 18th time in 21 games this month.

Houston 9, Minnesota 0--The Astros’ Shane Reynolds overcame a stomachache to pitch seven shutout innings and Jeff Bagwell drove in three runs for the victory over the Twins at Houston.

Reynolds (8-5) was originally scratched from the starting lineup because of his gastrointestinal problems. But the pitcher showed up in uniform to keep his regular start and allowed only one runner past first base--Marty Cordova’s fourth-inning double.

Cleveland 5, Chicago Cubs 4--Travis Fryman tied the score with an eighth-inning home run as the Indians rallied at Chicago. After Fryman connected against loser Terry Adams (6-4), pinch-hitter Mark Whiten doubled and scored on a single by Pat Borders, putting the Indians in front. It was the 12th homer of the year for Fryman, who also doubled home a run earlier.

Philadelphia 3, Boston 2--Scott Rolen homered and Mark Portugal pitched his first complete game in two years as the Phillies won at Boston for their second consecutive comeback victory over the Red Sox.

Portugal (3-2) won for the first time in seven starts since May 14, giving up two runs and seven hits and striking out seven. He walked none as the Phillies earned their 25th come-from-behind victory of the season.

Chicago White Sox 5, Pittsburgh 4--Frank Thomas drove in two runs and the White Sox jumped out to a big first inning for the second night in a row at Pittsburgh and held off the Pirates.

The White Sox, swept in a three-game interleague series in Pittsburgh last season when star Albert Belle was paid more than the entire Pirates’ team, won both games in the series this time.

Tampa Bay 6, Florida 4--Paul Sorrento homered and doubled to drive in four runs at St. Petersburg, Fla., as the Devil Rays gained their first interleague victory over their in-state rival.

Albie Lopez (3-2) pitched 2 2/3 innings in relief of knuckleballer Dennis Springer to get the victory before an announced crowd of 27,523--about 3,100 less than the Devil Rays average against AL opponents.

Toronto 3, Montreal 2--Chris Carpenter pitched eight strong innings and the Blue Jays took advantage of the Expos’ sloppy fielding at Toronto.

Carpenter (4-2) gained this third consecutive victory, allowing one run and eight hits with five strikeouts and no walks.

The Expos committed two errors in the seventh, when the Blue Jays scored twice to take a 3-1 lead.

Texas 16, Arizona 5--Juan Gonzalez’s two-run double increased his major league-leading RBI total to 91 and Rusty Greer added a three-run homer against the Diamondbacks during the Rangers’ 11-run fifth inning at Arlington, Texas.

Roberto Kelly added a pair of RBI singles in the fifth and Will Clark had an RBI double in the inning, when the Rangers sent 14 batters to the plate.

N.Y. Mets 6, Baltimore 3--New York scored three runs off Arthur Rhodes in the seventh inning after a lengthy rain delay to win at Baltimore.

The game was halted by rain for 1 hour, 26 minutes in the middle of the sixth with the Orioles holding a 3-2 lead. After John Hudek (1-4) pitched a scoreless sixth, the Mets came back.

San Francisco 4, Oakland 2--Barry Bonds and J.T. Snow hit home runs and Mark Gardner pitched seven solid innings for the Giants in a victory at Oakland.

Gardner (6-3) fell behind 2-0 after three innings before settling down to hold the A’s scoreless on three hits over the next four innings. Robb Nen pitched the ninth for his 23rd save.

Milwaukee 7, Colorado 5--Bronswell Patrick was given a six-run, first-inning lead and held on for the victory in the only non-interleague game played.

Patrick (3-0), a 27-year-old rookie who was called up from the minors last month, gave up four earned runs on seven hits in 7 1/3 innings as the Brewers swept the two-game series in the Rockies’ first trip to County Stadium.