By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer

SAN DIEGO - The fifth spot in the Reds' batting order appears to have amazing medicinal powers for ailing bats.

Five days ago, Dave Miley put Ken Griffey Jr. there to get his bat going. It worked. Griffey has four home runs since.

Tuesday, Miley dropped Adam Dunn fifth. It worked.

Reds second baseman D'Angelo Jimenez jumps over San Diego's Ryan Klesko while relaying to first to complete a double play in the second inning. (AP photo)

Dunn responded with a two-run home run that helped the Reds to a 6-3 victory over the San Diego Padres before a crowd of 28,808 at PETCO Park.

Miley had Griffey fourth and Dunn fifth Tuesday.

"Junior has had a lot of success off (Padres starter) David Wells," Miley said. "That's why I flip-flopped them. It will probably be same (today)."

Griffey started the scoring in the third with his seventh homer of the year. Dunn, who was 2-for-3, hit his 11th in the sixth.

Tim Hummel, fresh up from Louisville, added two insurance runs with his first hit of the year -- a two-out single in the eighth.

Reds starter Aaron Harang, class of 1996 at nearby Patrick Henry High, pitched six strong innings to improve to 3-1. Harang is 2-0 lifetime in San Diego. He beat the Padres 9-5 on Aug. 9 of last year.

"It's nice to pitch at home," said Harang, who left 25 tickets. "You feel a little more comfortable when you have more than just your wife cheering for you. I could actually hear people cheering for me."

Harang was facing fellow San Diego native David Wells. The guy with 13 career wins (Harang) got the better of the guy with 202 (Wells).

Harang allowed three runs on five hits. He walked three and struck out five. He faced the minimum three batters in four of the six innings he worked. It was his first quality start in three outings.

Except for a two-out, two-run double he gave up to Mark Loretta in the fifth, Harang pitched extremely well.

"It was a very nice outing," Miley said. "Six solid innings. He walked a few, but he still pitched well."

John Riedling pitched a perfect seventh, Todd Jones worked the eighth, and Danny Graves pitched the ninth for his 14th save.

Wells (2-3) went seven innings, allowing four runs on five hits. He walked two and struck out one. Wells' only other start against the Reds was June 12, 2001 when he was with the White Sox. He pitched seven shutout innings in the 5-0 win.

Ken Griffey Jr. follows through with his home-run swing in the second inning off David Wells. (AP photo)

Griffey led off the second with a shot to right-center - the deepest part of the park. It got out easily for Griffey's seventh home of the year and his eighth homer off Wells. That's the most he's hit off any pitcher. He has six each off Roger Clemons and Tom Gordon.

"He's a battler," Griffey said of Wells. "He's not going to give in to anyone. He comes at you with everything he's got."

PETCO, the 38th park Griffey's homered in, has a reputation as a pitcher's yard.

"You have to step on it to get it out," Griffey said. "I hit some in (batting practice) that I thought I hit good and they were catching them at the warning track. That's not a good sign."

The Reds added a run in the third, but literally came inches from a big inning.

Harang led off the third with a double that landed at the base of wall in right center, just over from the 402 mark. D'Angelo Jimenez followed with a shot to right that Brian Giles ran down but had go off the heel of his glove for a two-base error. Harang had to hold at third.

Barry Larkin singled off Wells' glove. Harang scored, but Jimenez held at second.

"That's a hard read on a comebacker when you're at second," Miley said.

Sean Casey lined a laser that shortstop Khalil Greene made a diving snare on. Griffey then drove one to the wall in left that Ryan Klesko caught. Had Jimenez advanced on Larkin's ball, it would have been a sacrifice fly.

Dunn walked to load the bases. But Ryan Freel grounded out to end the inning.

The Padres scored a run in the third.

San Diego took the lead in the fifth. With one out, Greene singled. Wells struck out trying to bunt him over. Sean Burroughs followed with a single. Harang quickly put Loretta in an 0-2 hole. But Loretta took a ball, then hit one into the left-center gap for a two-run double. That made it 3-2.

Griffey led off the sixth with a walk. Dunn worked the count full. He then launched one to right. It was a mile high and just deep enough to clear the wall. That made it 4-3.

The Reds loaded the bases with one out in the eighth. Griffey walked, Dunn singled and Freel walked. After Javier Valentin struck out, Hummel put together a nine-pitch at-bat. He fouled off four pitches before punching one to right to score two runs.

"Those were two big runs," Miley said.

"I think all nine were fastballs," Hummel said. "(Reliever Antonio Osuna) kept coming right at me."

The pitch Hummel hit was a little outside.

"I didn't want to go down looking in that situation no matter what," Hummel said.

Cincinnati	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
DJimenez 2b	5	0	0	0	0	1	.203
Larkin ss	4	0	1	1	0	0	.302
Riedling p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
TJones p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
JaCruz ph	1	0	0	0	0	1	.304
Graves p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Casey 1b	5	0	1	0	0	0	.369
Griffey Jr. cf	3	3	1	1	2	1	.243
Dunn lf	3	2	2	2	1	0	.298
Freel rf	3	0	0	0	1	0	.247
Valentin c	4	0	1	0	0	1	.170
Hummel 3b	4	0	1	2	0	0	.200
Harang p	2	1	1	0	0	1	.067
JCastro ph-ss	2	0	0	0	0	1	.259
Totals	36	6	8	6	4	6

San Diego	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Burroughs 3b	3	1	3	1	1	0	.336
Loretta 2b	4	0	1	2	0	0	.323
BGiles rf	4	0	0	0	0	2	.260
Nevin 1b	4	0	0	0	0	2	.262
Klesko lf	3	0	1	0	1	0	.276
Payton cf	4	0	1	0	0	1	.277
Ojeda c	2	1	0	0	1	1	.257
Robinson ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.344
Greene ss	4	1	2	0	0	1	.282
DWells p	1	0	0	0	0	1	.083
Long ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.327
Oropesa p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Osuna p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Linebrink p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
RVazquez ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.111
Totals	32	3	8	3	3	8

Cincinnati	011	002	020	-6	8	0
San Diego	001	020	000	-3	8	1

E-BGiles (3). LOB-Cincinnati 7, San Diego 6. 2B-Casey (14), Harang (1), Loretta (9). HR-Dunn (11), off DWells; Griffey Jr. (7), off DWells. RBIs-Larkin (10), Griffey Jr. (22), Dunn 2 (22), Hummel 2 (2), Burroughs (13), Loretta 2 (21). CS-Loretta (1). S-DWells. GIDP-Payton. DP-Cincinnati 2.

Cincinnati	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Harang W, 3-1	6	5	3	3	3	5	104	4.89
Riedling H, 6	1	0	0	0	0	1	13	0.53
TJones H, 11	1	1	0	0	0	1	9	5.21
Graves S, 14	1	2	0	0	0	1	14	3.26

San Diego	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
DWells L, 2-3	7	5	4	4	2	1	116	3.68
Oropesa	1/3	1	2	2	1	0	12	11.74
Osuna	1/3	1	0	0	1	1	23	3.94
Linebrink	1 1/3	1	0	0	0	4	21	1.40

Inherited runners-scored-Osuna 2-2, Linebrink 2-0.

Umpires-Home, Bruce Froemming; First, Mike Winters; Second, Hunter Wendelstedt; Third, Tim Timmons.

T-3:03. A-28,809 (42,445).