Ken Griffey Jr. is greeted by Sean Casey after his HR. (AP photos) | ZOOM |

        ST. LOUIS — The Reds began Tuesday night as sluggers and ended it as survivors.

        Locked in an 8-8 tie with the St. Louis Cardinals despite homering four times, the Reds scratched across a pair of runs in the top of the ninth inning and outlasted the St. Louis Cardinals 10-9 in the opener of a two-game series.

        “Ho hum,” Reds manager Bob Boone said sarcastically.

        The Reds (29-46) improved to 3-2 on this two-city journey and assured themselves of at least a .500 finish on the trip entering tonight's finale.

        Cincinnati's power, which suddenly has generated 19 home runs in seven games, was impressive. Yet it was Brady Clark's bunt that propelled the Reds' winning rally in the ninth.

        Alex Ochoa, who went 3-for-4 and combined with Barry Larkin to open the game with back-to-back homers, opened the ninth with a ground-rule double off Gene Stechschulte (0-4), the fourth of five Cardinals relievers.

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        Clark, batting for Scott Sullivan (2-1), swung fully at one pitch and fouled it off. With left-handed batters Ken Griffey Jr. and Sean Casey due up next, Reds manager Bob Boone was aware that his Cardinals counterpart, Tony LaRussa, would summon left-handed reliever Steve Kline after Clark batted. Griffey and Casey happened to be a combined 0-for-13 in their careers against Kline.

        So Boone ordered Clark to bunt. “I had to get Alex to third,” said Boone, explaining his decision.

        Clark pushed his bunt toward the third-base side of the pitcher's mound. Stechschulte fielded the ball and fired it past first base, enabling Ochoa to score as Clark moved to second base.

        Clark had recorded only seven sacrifices in 1,841 minor-league at-bats and one in 37 at-bats in the majors. But the reserve outfielder was ready to execute his task.

        “I try to work on all aspects of the game,” he said. “I go to the (batting) cage early every day; the first thing I do is bunt. In my position, you never know when I'll be asked to do it.”

        Said Boone: “He put down a blueprint bunt. That's what playing it right is all about.”

        Noting that Clark's swing earlier in the count might have left the Cardinals hesitant about how to defend him, Boone added, “I think (the bunt) kind of surprised them.”

Dmitri Young homers. | ZOOM |

        Griffey faced Kline and singled to right field, scoring Clark. It proved to be a key run, because Danny Graves, who spent a week working earlier in games to refine his assortment of pitches, record ed his 15th save but allowed Fernando Vina's RBI single in the bottom of the ninth. That concluded a huge night for Vina, whose five RBI matched a personal best.

        For a while, the Reds appeared destined for a much easier evening. Using their projected Opening Day lineup for just the third time this season, the Reds showed how much better this year could have been had they avoided the injury bug.

        Griffey's third home run of the season tied the score 4-4 and ignited a five-run sixth inning that gave the Reds an 8-4 lead.

        But the Cardinals threatened with a three-run seventh inning before tying the score on Jim Edmonds' eighth-inning leadoff homer off Sullivan.

Alex Ochoa rounds second after his leadoff homer. | ZOOM |

        The Reds took a 3-0 lead, scoring on homers by Ochoa, Larkin and Dmitri Young, before St. Louis forged ahead with pairs of runs in the fourth and fifth innings.

        The consecutive homers from Ochoa and Larkin were mildly historic. The Reds hadn't opened a game with homers from their first two hitters since Sept. 9, 1996, when Thomas Howard and Hal Morris performed the feat. Ochoa notched his second leadoff homer of the season; Larkin pulled even with Johnny Bench for third place on the Reds' all-time hit list (2,048).

        Young's homer was his first since May 2 and ended a power drought of 142 at-bats.

        Then came Cincinnati's big sixth. It began with Griffey's homer, an estimated 407-foot shot that landed in Busch Stadium's right-center field pavilion and silenced the crowd of 41,791.

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