Griffey homers, Triple-A call-up Livingston sparks Reds to win

Reds 10, Braves 3

ATLANTA -- Who needs Ken Griffey Jr. when you've got the great Bobby Livingston?

"That's no fun," Griffey said with a big grin. "It just takes me out of my pinch-hitting role. They'll call on him now."

Griffey passed Frank Robinson for sixth place on the career home run list, and Livingston, a relatively unknown pitcher called up by Cincinnati before the game, went 4-for-4 with an RBI in the Reds' 10-3 victory over the Atlanta Braves on Monday night.

Griffey's 24th homer, a three-run shot into the right-field seats at Turner Field, came off Atlanta reliever Oscar Villarreal in the second inning and gave the Reds a 5-0 lead.

"I have nothing but accolades for him," interim Reds manager Pete Mackanin said. "His home run was pretty special."

With 587 homers, Griffey moved 15 behind Texas' Sammy Sosa for fifth place. Griffey gave Cincinnati a 1-0 lead with an RBI single in the first.

Cincinnati called up Livingston (2-0) from Triple-A Louisville, and the left-hander allowed eight hits, two runs and two walks in five innings. He struck out four.

"My changeup was working and my sinker," Livingston said. "I made some pitches when I needed to."

All of Livingston's hits were singles, including the one in the third that made it 6-0. He was 1-for-4 with one RBI for the season entering the game. The last Reds pitcher to go 4-for-4 in a game was John Smiley, who had four RBIs while pitching Cincinnati to a 12-3 victory at Montreal on June 7, 1993.

Asked to compare his modest achievement or Griffey's, Livingston joked that the nine-time All-Star has already done plenty in his career.

"Probably my four hits," Livingston said, "because it's something I can tell my grandkids. I told him congratulations. He didn't think it was a big deal, but I think it's awesome."

The Reds had lost three of four on its current 10-game road trip before Livingston, whom the Reds claimed off waivers from Seattle last December, made his third start of the season and first since winning 4-2 at Colorado on June 1.

"The most important thing is we got the win," Griffey said. "That's something we haven't done a lot in the second half."

The Braves had won four straight and 12 of 16, but Atlanta starter Kyle Davies (4-8) failed to record an out and faced just five batters.

After Griffey's RBI, Davies walked Adam Dunn with the bases loaded, and Braves manager Bobby Cox had seen enough. Davies allowed two hits and three walks. He threw just seven strikes in 21 pitches.

Davies, who missed a start last month with a strained oblique and spent nearly four months on the disabled list in 2006 after undergoing groin surgery, insists he's healthy.

"I'm frustrated," Davies said. "I want to be consistent. I'm a whole lot better than that. It wasn't like I was all over the place. I missed in the same spot."

The last Braves starter to leave a game without a disclosed injury and not get an out was Len Barker in 1985.

"He couldn't really locate his fastball and fell behind on everybody," Cox said of Davies. "Just was way, way off the mark."

Andruw Jones cut the Reds' lead to 6-2 with a two-run single in the third and a fielder's choice RBI in the seventh.

Edwin Encarnacion had an RBI single in the fourth to make it 7-2. In the fifth, Ryan Freel scored from third on shortstop Edgar Renteria's throwing error to catcher Brian McCann, and Dunn's RBI single then gave the Reds a 9-2 lead.

Livingston walked Chipper Jones to load the bases in the fifth, but he escaped the jam by striking out Andruw Jones and Jeff Francoeur and getting pinch-hitter Matt Diaz to pop up.

The Braves stranded 11 runners through eight innings, and Francoeur showed his frustration in the fifth by arguing a called third strike that earned him an ejection from home-plate umpire Angel Hernandez.

Atlanta also had errors from first baseman Scott Thorman and second baseman Yunel Escobar.

"That was a pretty awful exhibition of baseball all the way around," Chipper Jones said.

Game Notes
Now in his eighth year with Cincinnati, Griffey began the season tied with Reggie Jackson for 10th place with 563 homers. Griffey played his first 11 years for Seattle, hitting 398 homers and winning the 1997 AL MVP. ... Play was stopped for 11 minutes in the fifth because a few lights above the field burned out. ... Atlanta used four pitchers after Villarreal. The Reds used four after Livingston.