By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer

How good does a win have to be to overshadow a guy hitting two home runs to move within two of the magical 500 mark?

As good as the Reds' 6-5 victory over the Montreal Expos Sunday before 31,814 happy fans at Great American Ball Park.

PHOTO GALLERY

Photos of Sunday's game

The win - the Reds' second walk-off win in two days - falls under the category of games the Reds had no business winning.

"It was a very nice win," manager Dave Miley said.

Yes, and a Maserati is a very nice ride.

Sunday's game went to ninth tied at 3-3. The Reds' offense to that point had consisted of home run Nos. 497 and 498 from Ken Griffey Jr.

So when the Expos scored two runs in the top of ninth, it looked like the Reds were headed for a 5-3 loss and disheartening series loss to the Expos.

That was not the feeling on the bench.

"(Sean) Casey said, 'let's put a good finish on it,' " Griffey said.

Still, it didn't look like that was going to happen. After Adam Dunn grounded out, Brandon Larson walked and Jason LaRue flied out. The Reds were down to their last out.

Miley sent up pinch-hitter Jacob Cruz, thinking "two-run homer." Trouble is, Cruz hadn't hit a home run in the big leagues since May 29, 2002.

But he was hoping that Reds' karma was on his side..

"It's been someone different every day," Cruz said. "You think, 'hey, today might be my day.' "

It was. Cruz hit an 0-1 pitch from Montreal closer Rocky Biddle out to right-center to tie it at 5-5.

Miley had another bullet on the bench. Barry Larkin, out of the lineup with an abdominal strain, followed with a pinch-hit single.

The Expos replaced Biddle with Chad Cordero. Ryan Freel, 1-for-his-last-19, greeted Cordero with a single to left, sending Larkin to third.

The Expos brought in left-hander Chad Bentz to force D'Angelo Jimenez to hit right-handed. Jimenez was hitting .224 from the right side.

"I just wanted to make good contact," Jimenez said. "The way I've been swinging, I was confident."

Jimenez stroked his third hit of the day up the middle. Larkin trotted home for the game-wining run and the Reds had themselves some fun celebrating with Jimenez at first.

"It's a lot of fun to come back like we did," Griffey said. "Before Cruz came up, Dunn told me he was going to hit it out. I just looked at him."

It's best not to doubt the Reds these days.

They've won 17 of their last 22. At 34-22, they are 12 games over .500 for the first time since the 1999 season ended.

This team is starting to get the '99 feeling.

"The energy of the clubhouse carries out to the field," Cruz said.

The St. Louis Cardinals lost 3-2 to Houston, so the Reds' lead in National League Central is back to two games.

That the Reds are winning as often as they are is impressive. The way they're winning is more impressive.

Sunday, starter Todd Van Poppel put them in a 3-0 hole before they came to bat.

Van Poppel continues to struggle in the first inning. His ERA in the first is 16.50. After the first, his ERA in his starts is 1.69.

Griffey took care of two-thirds of lead in the first. He hit a Livan Hernandez 3-2 pitch out to left for his 16th of the year.

Griffey tied in the third by hitting the first pitch from Hernandez out to right. That was No. 17 of the year, the 498th of his career and his 100th as a Red.

A curtain call followed.

"I had to go out, they weren't going to quiet down," Griffey said. "I try not to get too emotional. But that was nice."

Hernandez only allowed one more hit before leaving after eight innings.

After the first, Van Poppel, Brian Reith, Phil Norton and Todd Jones combined to put up zeros.

Jones thought he was out of the ninth as well. He thought he struck out Terrmel Sledge on a 2-2 pitch to end the inning and leave Juan Rivera stranded at third. Home plate umpire Bill Miller thought it was ball three.

"I've got to be good enough to make another pitch," Jones said.

Sledge dropped a single into left-center to score Rivera with the go-ahead run. Mike Matthews replaced Jones. A balk, passed ball and Brad Wilkerson's bunt got Sledge in.

"As reliever, you've got to control the damage," Jones said. "The way we're swinging, these guys can get you off the hook."

And that's exactly what happened.

Montreal	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Wilkerson lf	4	1	2	1	1	1	.239
EnChavez cf	5	1	1	0	0	0	.265
Vidro 2b	4	1	3	2	0	0	.245
TBatista 3b	4	0	0	0	0	2	.245
NJohnson 1b	4	0	1	1	0	0	.406
OCabrera ss	3	0	0	0	1	2	.224
JRivera rf	4	1	1	0	0	0	.278
Schneider c	4	0	0	0	0	0	.245
LHernandez p	3	0	0	0	0	0	.125
Sledge ph	1	1	1	1	0	0	.258
Biddle p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
CCordero p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Bentz p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Totals	36	5	9	5	2	5

Cincinnati	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Freel rf	5	0	1	0	0	0	.237
DJimenez 2b	5	1	3	1	0	0	.250
Casey 1b	4	0	0	0	0	0	.377
Griffey Jr. cf	3	2	2	3	1	0	.249
Dunn lf	4	0	0	0	0	3	.254
Larson 3b	3	1	0	0	1	0	.261
LaRue c	4	0	0	0	0	0	.198
FLopez ss	3	0	1	0	0	2	.111
JaCruz ph	1	1	1	2	0	0	.250
Van Poppel p	1	0	1	0	0	0	.182
Hummel ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.182
Reith p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
PNorton p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
WPena ph	1	0	0	0	0	1	.265
TJones p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
MMatthews p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Larkin ph	1	1	1	0	0	0	.291
Totals	36	6	10	6	2	6

Montreal	300	000	002	-5	9	0
Cincinnati	201	000	003	-6	10	0

Two outs when winning run scored.

LOB-Montreal 6, Cincinnati 6. 2B-Vidro 2 (12), NJohnson (6), JRivera (6). HR-JaCruz (1), off Biddle; Griffey Jr. 2 (17), off LHernandez 2. RBIs-Wilkerson (22), Vidro 2 (18), NJohnson (3), Sledge (15), DJimenez (21), Griffey Jr. 3 (47), JaCruz 2 (8).

Montreal	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
LHernandez	8	6	3	3	1	6	122	3.42
Biddle L, 0-4	BS, 3 2/3	2	3	3	1	0	20	7.32
CCordero	0	1	0	0	0	0	3	2.18
Bentz	0	1	0	0	0	0	3	5.87

Cincinnati	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Van Poppel	5	5	3	3	1	3	81	4.43
Reith	1	0	0	0	1	0	16	5.91
PNorton	1	0	0	0	0	1	10	4.19
TJones	1 2/3	3	2	1	0	1	34	4.09
MMatthews W, 1-0	1/3	1	0	0	0	0	7	2.35

CCordero pitched to 1 batter in the 9th, Bentz pitched to 1 batter in the 9th.

Inherited runners-scored-CCordero 1-0, Bentz 2-1, MMatthews 1-1.

WP-LHernandez. PB-LaRue. Balk-MMatthews.

T-2:45. A-31,814 (42,271).