Ruben Rivera climbs the wall but can't bring back Keith Lockhart's HR. (Gary Landers photos) | ZOOM |

        Ken Griffey Jr. probably hit the longest ball of his life Thursday — non-home run division. The ball hit maybe 6 feet below the top of the 40-foot wall in center field.

        If the wall hadn't stopped it, the ball would have gone 420 feet.

        But because the wall did stop it, Griffey ended up with a double. He was stranded at second base. And the Reds lost to the Atlanta Braves 2-1 before a crowd of 26,039 on a muggy afternoon at Cinergy Field.

        “Stupid hitting,” Griffey said. “I hit it to the biggest part of the ballpark.”

        Others might choose to curse their luck.

        Consider: Griffey's ball doesn't make it out, but balls hit by Keith Lockhart and Dave Martinez did. Lockhart and Martinez have combined for 327 fewer career home runs than Griffey.

        Lockhart had two home runs all last year. He hit two in two days against the Reds. Martinez had not hit one this season until Thursday.

Jim Brower reacts to Dave Martinez' HR. | ZOOM |

        But that's the kind of year it has been for the Reds. The loss was their 13th in the past 16 games. The Reds closed the homestand 2-6, falling to 13-37 overall at Cinergy.

        Atlanta starter John Burkett (7-7) came in with the second-lowest ERA in the National League, and he lowered it from 2.51 to 2.38 by shutting out the Reds for seven innings.

        Still, Jim Brower (4-7) kept the Reds in it.

        “He was great,” Reds manager Bob Boone said. “This whole turn of the rotation has been good. It's exciting and depressing.”

        Exciting, because the Reds appear to have the starting pitching to compete; depressing, because the offense has been so bad you need Koufax and Drysdale to win.

        Brower, making his second start since returning to the rotation, gave up leadoff homers to Lockhart in the second and Martinez in the third.

        “I challenged them,” he said. “The pitch to Lockhart was a breaking ball that didn't break. The other one (to Martinez) was a change- up that moved into the bat rather than away.”

        Griffey's long double came in the fourth. Dmitri Young walked. But Aaron Boone, the Reds' hottest hitter, hit into a double play.

        The Reds broke through in the ninth when Boone doubled and Sean Casey got him home with a pinch-hit single.

        “Sometimes you have to pitch a shutout,” Brower said.

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