Dodgers pitcher Eric Gagne is held back by catcher Chad Kreuter and manager Jim Tracy after Gagne was ejected from the game by home plate umpire Dan Iassogna in the ninth inning. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        As the afternoon dragged on, the Reds started to get the feeling they had to win. They had come back from the dead to tie it, and they were 4 1/2 hours and 13 innings into it.

        “It was a long day — physically and emotionally,” third baseman Aaron Boone said. “It's the kind of game you really want to win. If you lose, you kind of come out dragging the next day.”

        It's fair to say the Reds will have plenty of pep in their step when they take the field tonight to open a three-game series in San Diego.

        That's because they did pull it out Thursday, beating the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-4 on Ken Griffey Jr.'s two-run walk-off home run in the 13th inning before what was left of a crowd of 27,950 at Cinergy Field.

        The win was big because it allowed the Reds to take two of three in the series and move to within 3 games of the Dodgers in the National League wild card race.

Junior blasts one into the green seats in right field in the bottom of the 13th... (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        But it probably is bigger because of the way the Reds won it.

        They were down 4-0 going into the bottom of ninth against one of the game's best closers, Eric Gagne.

        “We've had the same mentality since we came out of spring training,” said Jason LaRue, who drove in the tying runs with a two-out, two-run double in the ninth. “Every single day, we're going to give it our best for nine, 10, 15 innings. Whatever it takes.”

        Thursday, it took some clutch hitting, some great relief pitching and one bizarre call from an umpire.

        The Reds looked like they would go quietly. They went into the ninth down 4-0, having recorded two hits and advanced one runner to third base all day.

        Of their six base runners going into the ninth, two had been picked off.

        “We're young, dumb and stupid,” Reds manager Bob Boone said. “But we've got a lot of heart.”

...is mobbed at home plate... (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        They'd need it against Gagne, the Dodgers closer who throws nearly 100 mph. Gagne had converted 35 of 37 saves. His ERA was 1.57, and opponents were hitting .168 off him.

        “It looked like it was going to be another frustrating day,” Aaron Boone said.

        But pinch hitter Todd Walker slapped a single into left field. Boone followed with an opposite-field home run, his 16th of the year, to cut the lead to 4-2.

        “Aaron's home run was huge,” LaRue said. “That gave us a boost. It got us excited.”

        The real excitement was about to come.

        Gagne hit Adam Dunn in the middle of the back with the first pitch. Before Dunn took a step toward first, home plate umpire Dan Iassogna ejected Gagne. Gagne went ballistic. He charged Iassogna and bumped him. Catcher Chad Kreuter restrained Gagne, who fought like a madman to get loose. He finally was dragged away by a host of teammates.

        Manager Jim Tracy took up Gagne's cause and was ejected, too.

        “I don't know what to say, really, except that it was grossest error in judgment quite possibly in the history of the game,” Tracy said.

...and gets a nice round of high-fives from the grounds crew as he leaves the field. (Michael E. Keating photo) | ZOOM |

        Said Iassogna: “One of the things Major League Baseball put in place (to stop) is a situation when a pitcher throws at a guy, particularly after a home run. It was a shoulder-high fastball right at Dunn. He was the next batter (after a homer). It was the next pitch.”

        Dunn didn't think Gagne was throwing at him.

        “Absolutely not,” Dunn said. “Why would he hit me in that situation?”

        It took about 10 minutes for things to calm down. Paul Quantrill was brought on to replace Gagne.

        He faced one batter, allowing a single to Austin Kearns.

        The Reds played their trump card, bringing Griffey up to pinch hit. Jesse Orosco, the ageless lefty reliever, struck him out. The next hitter, Reggie Taylor, hit a comebacker and Orosco threw him out. But the runners advanced.

        The Dodgers brought in Giovanni Carrara to face LaRue. Carrara had pitched briefly for the Reds in 1999, so LaRue knew what he was facing.

        “I was just battling,” he said, “trying to get a pitch into play.”

        Carrara threw a cut fastball that LaRue lined off the wall in left to tie it. The next hitter, Brady Clark, nearly won it with a drive to center.

        Then the game settled into the battle of the bullpens. Both were already under stress — the Reds' because starter Elmer Dessens went only four innings before leaving with tightness in his groin muscle, and the Dodgers because they has used four pitchers to get through the ninth.

        The Reds' best reliever, Danny Graves, had allowed a run in the eighth and another in the ninth.

        But Scott Sullivan and Scott Williamson each pitched two innings of one-hit ball in extra innings. Carrara ended up going 21/3 for the Dodgers.

        The Reds threatened in the 10th and 11th. Griffey got his third chance in the 13th against Omar Daal. Dunn led off with a walk, then Kearns bunted into a fielder's choice.

        Daal started Griffey with a slider.

        “I didn't see it,” Griffey said. “I thought, "I hope he doesn't throw that again.”'

        Daal came with a 2-2 fastball that Griffey crushed into the green seats above right-center field. It was the third walk-off homer of the year and merited a revival of the “The Hop,” the 1999 celebration at home plate.

        “That never gets old,” Griffey said. “As long as you win, you'll play all day.”

        “Today you saw one of the reasons we missed not having Griffey,” Bob Boone said.

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