By John Fay
Enquirer staff writer

NEW YORK - Sean Casey is 400 home runs behind Ken Griffey Jr. But No. 100 for Casey was as sweet as a regular-season home run gets.

Casey's two-out, two-run homer in the 12th inning lifted the Reds to a 6-4 victory over the New York Mets at Shea Stadium, on a night when the Reds often seemed a New York minute from a loss.

Sean Casey hits a two-run home run to beat the New York Mets in the 12th inning. (AP photo)

"It's always gratifying to get a big hit to win the game," Casey said. "But I think the win for the team is bigger. You don't want to play until 11 o'clock and not walk away with a win."

Juan Castro doubled with two outs in the 12th off former Red John Franco. That brought up Casey, 4-for-5 with a homer at that point.

Make that 5-for-6 with two home runs. Casey hit one well out to right field for his 100th career homer.

"It was good to get 100," Casey said. "It'll take me 35 years to get to 500. I've got 100 in 61/2 years; you do the math."

Casey was 1-for-7 off Franco before the homer.

"He's always been tough on me," Casey said. "It was a sinker in."

The night was made a little more special by the fact that Casey's father, Jim, was at the game.

"He was with six friends he hadn't seen for 30 years," Casey said. "So they had a great time."

So did the Reds.

This one played out almost exactly like Tuesday's 7-4 loss. The Reds went up 4-0 early, and the Mets came back.

But this time, the Reds bullpen held fast once the game was tied. John Riedling pitched two scoreless innings and made a miraculous escape in the ninth. Mike Matthews threw a scoreless 11th to get the win. Danny Graves pitched the 12th for his 28th save.

Casey also drilled a two-run bomb in the first inning Wednesday. (AP photo)

But it was Casey's night.

"He's unbelievable," Graves said. "You can't stop the guy when he's hot. He'll hit anything you throw."

It was Casey's second five-hit game. He also had one against Kansas City June 6, 1999.

D'Angelo Jimenez and Wily Mo Pena also homered for the Reds, who scored two runs in the first inning, two in the second no more until the 12th.

Jimenez started the game with a line drive into right but was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double. That would cost the Reds a run when Castro followed with a single, and Casey then hit a high shot to right-center that cleared the 371-foot mark. The two RBI gave him 500 for his career.

Pena led off the second with a bolt to right-center for his sixth homer of the year.

Two outs later, Jimenez joined the home run derby. He hit his fourth homer of the year to make it 4-0.

Then the bats went quiet.

"That's kind of the way it's been," Reds manager Dave Miley said. "We jump out quick, then don't add on. We've got to find a way to keep it going."

The Mets cut the lead in half with two-out RBI hits from Jose Reyes and Mike Piazza in the third. Cliff Floyd's fifth-inning RBI single made it 4-3.

Van Poppel was gone after the fifth. He allowed three runs on eight hits.

But Todd Jones allowed Richard Hidalgo's run-scoring single in the eighth that tied the game, and the Reds had their sixth blown save in their last seven chances.

John Riedling, who had a 14.09 ERA over his last seven outings, came on to pitch the ninth and made the great escape.

Riedling allowed a leadoff single to Ty Wigginton. Todd Zeile tried to bunt him over, but Riedling threw Wigginton out at second. Shane Spencer singled into right, and Zeile went to third. Riedling then fell behind Matsui 3-0, but ended up striking him out. Jose Reyes followed and grounded meekly back to Riedling.

"JR made pitches when he had to," Miley said. "That was a real tough situation."

Griffey ceremony

The Reds will honor Ken Griffey Jr. before Friday's game with the Pittsburgh Pirates at Great American Ball Park with a ceremony at 6:55 p.m. The club is giving away 11-by-17 posters commemorating Griffey's 500th home run.

Cincinnati	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
DJimenez 2b	6	1	2	1	0	0	.256
JCastro ss	6	2	2	0	0	1	.297
Casey 1b	6	2	5	4	0	0	.361
Griffey Jr. cf	5	0	0	0	1	0	.254
Dunn lf	5	0	0	0	0	2	.257
LaRue c	5	0	0	0	0	1	.229
WPena rf	5	1	2	1	0	2	.271
MMatthews p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Graves p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Hummel 3b	5	0	2	0	0	1	.295
Van Poppel p	2	0	0	0	0	1	.143
GWhite p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
JClark ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.130
TJones p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
JaCruz ph	1	0	1	0	0	0	.277
Riedling p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Freel rf	1	0	0	0	0	0	.249
Totals	48	6	14	6	1	8

New York	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Matsui ss	6	0	2	0	0	1	.253
Reyes 2b	5	2	1	1	1	0	.118
Piazza c	5	1	3	1	1	0	.312
Floyd lf	5	0	1	1	0	0	.282
Hidalgo rf	5	0	2	1	0	1	.256
Cameron cf	5	0	0	0	0	2	.218
Wigginton 3b	4	0	2	0	1	0	.274
Valent 1b	2	1	1	0	0	0	.250
Zeile ph-1b	2	0	0	0	0	0	.243
McEwing pr-1b	1	0	0	0	0	0	.211
Seo p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.200
Williams ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.294
Parra p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Spencer ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.303
Stanton p	0	0	0	0	0	0	1.000
Bottalico p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
JPhillips ph	1	0	1	0	0	0	.218
Looper p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Trachsel ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.200
JoFranco p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Totals	44	4	13	4	3	4

Cincinnati	220	000	000	002	-6	14	1
New York	002	010	010	000	-4	13	0

E-LaRue (7). LOB-Cincinnati 7, New York 8. 2B-JCastro (7), Reyes (1), Piazza (15), Hidalgo (16). HR-DJimenez (4), off Seo; WPena (6), off Seo; Casey 2 (15), off JoFranco, Seo. RBIs-DJimenez (22), Casey 4 (54), WPena (16), Reyes (2), Piazza (36), Floyd (27), Hidalgo (33). CS-Hidalgo (3). S-Seo. GIDP-Griffey Jr., Reyes, Floyd. DP-Cincinnati 2, New York 1.

Cincinnati	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Van Poppel	5	8	3	3	1	1	86	4.60
GWhite H, 1	1	0	0	0	0	1	12	0.00
TJones BS, 4	2	2	1	1	0	0	35	3.56
Riedling	2	2	0	0	1	2	26	3.86
MMatthews W, 2-1	1	0	0	0	1	0	19	3.45
Graves S, 28	1	1	0	0	0	0	5	3.35

New York	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Seo	5	8	4	4	1	1	82	4.84
Parra	2	1	0	0	0	1	25	0.00
Stanton	2/3	1	0	0	0	1	12	3.29
Bottalico	1 1/3	2	0	0	0	2	16	1.90
Looper	2	0	0	0	0	3	30	1.70
JoFranco L, 1-4	1	2	2	2	0	0	16	4.70

Inherited runners-scored-Bottalico 1-0.

Umpires-Home, Mark Wegner; First, Rob Drake; Second, Angel Hernandez; Third, Mike Everitt.

T-3:43. A-32,423 (57,405).