Griffey Home Run Matches DiMaggio

Ken Griffey Jr. matched Joe DiMaggio in the most appropriate place--Yankee Stadium.

Griffey hit his 361st home run, tying DiMaggio for 45th on the career list, as the Seattle Mariners got 19 hits and pounded the Yankees, 14-5, Saturday.

“I really didn’t know it until the cameraman said something to me,” said Griffey, whose 11th homer of the season tied him for the American League lead.

DiMaggio, who died in March, accumulated his total in 13 seasons as the Yankee center fielder from 1936-51, missing three years because of World War II.

Griffey, whose two-run homer in the sixth put Seattle ahead 9-1, is in his 11th season.

John Mabry went five for six to equal Seattle’s record for hits, giving the Yankees their second loss in their last 20 home games.

Orlando Hernandez (3-3), who had won nine consecutive starts at Yankee Stadium since losing to Atlanta’s Tom Glavine last June 23, was hit hard for the third time in his last five starts. He gave up seven runs and 10 hits in 4 2/3 innings.

Hernandez didn’t have many problems in the first four innings, giving up one run on Tom Lampkin’s leadoff homer in the third. But Hernandez he gave up five hits with two outs and none on in the fifth.

“I thought he had outstanding stuff the first three, four innings,” Yankee interim manager Don Zimmer said. “Then he fell apart.”