By Kevin Kelly
Enquirer staff writer

When the ball rolled safely onto the outfield grass, Tim Hummel turned and shifted his focus. Ken Griffey Jr. was half running, half hobbling around third base.

"I wasn't sure he was going to make it," Hummel said. "It wasn't the prettiest of runs."

Shortstop Barry Larkin trailed behind the Reds center fielder on the bases after Hummel's hit.

Ken Griffey, Jr. brought home the winning run after Tim Hummel's 11th inning single. (Michael E. Keating photo)

"It looked like he needed a wheel chair," Larkin said. "Thank goodness the throw was off line."

Absent from the starting lineup the previous five games because of dehydration and a calf cramp, Griffey made it home on Hummel's 11th-inning single to give the Reds a 5-4 win against the Indians on Sunday before 30,375 at Great American Ball Park.

"I was rollin'," Griffey said. "I didn't head-first slide into home and just lay there, roll over and make an angel in the dirt.

"So it worked."

And thus a so-so homestand ended with Griffey contributing again and the Reds feeling considerably better about themselves.

Cincinnati went 4-5 during the homestand, but won the final two games after losing by 13 runs Friday.

"The thing is to try to keep grinding, try to stay focused and don't worry about sensational things," said Larkin, whose day of rest ended when he remained in Sunday's game after pinch-hitting in the eighth inning. "You go out there and do what you need in order to win. That's what we're able to do."

Halfway through this season - Sunday's game was No. 81 - Cincinnati is seven games over .500 and third in the National League Central standings.

The Reds trail the first-place Cardinals by five games entering a crucial stretch of division games that surrounds the July 12-14 All-Star break. The next 13 games are against St. Louis and Milwaukee.

"It's pretty much the whole season for us," Reds relief pitcher Todd Jones said. "That's going to tell an awful lot about whether guys are staying or leaving.

"I don't want to see them blow the place up and start over."

Jones pitched a scoreless 11th inning Sunday against the Indians, and picked up his sixth win this year thanks to Hummel's run-scoring single off Rick White.

The unreliable Indians bullpen had allowed the Reds to score three runs in the eighth to tie the game, 4-4, and worked its way into trouble the next three innings.

The Reds left five runners on base in the ninth and 10th, and had two on with one out in the 11th.

Javier Valentin popped out to second base for the second out, bringing Hummel to bat.

The reserve infielder, who came into Sunday batting .359 in his previous 15 games, entered the game as a pinch-hitter in the 10th inning and walked.

"He's done everything that we've asked," Reds manager Dave Miley said. "He's a guy that is very versatile."

With Griffey on second base and Larkin on first, Hummel lined the game-winning single on a 2-2 pitch.

"At first you go up there and just want to hit one hard," Hummel said. "You figure he's going to come at you, he's going to throw strikes.

"But once I got down to two strikes, then it's just trying to battle and put it in play. ... You just kind of think about getting a pitch to squeeze somewhere, and I was able to squeeze it up the middle."

Right-hander Aaron Harang started for the Reds and allowed one run - a solo homer by Matt Lawton - on five hits over six innings. Reds relievers John Riedling, Phil Norton, Danny Graves and Jones combined to allow three runs on seven hits over the final five innings.

"There's so much baseball left, and we can keep getting better," Hummel said. "If we do the little things right we'll win some games.

"These next seven games (before the All-Star break) we'll really see where we are. We've got to put ourselves in a good position to be able to compete and win this division."

Cleveland	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Crisp cf	5	0	1	2	0	0	.269
RiWhite p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Vizquel ss	5	0	2	0	0	1	.287
Lawton lf	5	2	2	1	0	0	.317
Blake 3b	5	0	1	0	0	1	.275
Gerut rf	4	0	2	1	1	0	.273
Belliard 2b	4	1	1	0	0	2	.316
Riske p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Little cf	1	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Broussard 1b	5	0	2	0	0	1	.254
Laker c	3	1	1	0	1	0	.203
Westbrook p	2	0	0	0	0	1	.000
Robertson p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Miller p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
JMcDonald 2b	1	0	0	0	0	0	.213
Totals	40	4	12	4	2	6

Cincinnati	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Freel lf-rf	6	0	4	1	0	0	.270
JCastro ss-3b-2b	5	0	1	0	1	0	.297
DJimenez 2b	4	0	1	0	2	1	.260
TJones p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Griffey Jr. cf	6	1	2	0	0	1	.246
Dunn 1b-lf	5	1	1	0	1	1	.268
WPena rf	3	0	0	0	0	0	.272
Riedling p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
PNorton p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Larkin ph-ss	2	1	1	0	1	0	.296
Valentin c-1b	5	1	2	1	1	0	.174
Larson 3b	3	1	0	0	0	1	.202
JaCruz ph	1	0	0	1	0	0	.270
Graves p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Hummel ph-3b	1	0	1	1	1	0	.282
Harang p	2	0	0	0	0	1	.040
LaRue c	2	0	0	0	0	0	.227
Totals	45	5	13	4	7	5

Cleveland	000	001	210	00	-4	12	2
Cincinnati	000	000	130	01	-5	13	1

Two outs when winning run scored.

E-Blake 2 (13), Griffey Jr. (1). LOB-Cleveland 6, Cincinnati 16. 2B-Crisp (12), Lawton (13), Blake (15), Gerut (22), Belliard (25), Broussard (15), JCastro (13), Valentin (5). HR-Lawton (14), off Harang. RBIs-Crisp 2 (28), Lawton (48), Gerut (32), Freel (15), Valentin (10), JaCruz (17), Hummel (7). SB-Lawton (15). CS-Gerut (3), Freel (5). S-Westbrook. GIDP-Lawton 2, Laker, JCastro.

Runners left in scoring position-Cleveland 4 (Vizquel, Gerut, Broussard, Westbrook); Cincinnati 6 (DJimenez 3, Griffey Jr., Dunn, Larkin).

Runners moved up-Dunn, JaCruz.

DP-Cleveland 1 (Blake, Belliard and Broussard); Cincinnati 3 (DJimenez, JCastro and Dunn), (Graves, Larkin and Valentin), (Larkin, DJimenez and Valentin).

Cleveland	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Westbrook	6 2/3	6	1	1	3	3	88	3.05
Robertson H, 2	2/3	1	1	1	0	0	11	5.59
Miller	0	2	2	1	0	0	8	2.61
Riske BS, 6	1 2/3	1	0	0	1	1	35	4.32
RiWhite L, 3-3	1 2/3	3	1	1	3	1	40	3.07

Cincinnati	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Harang	6	5	1	1	1	4	105	4.71
Riedling	1	3	2	2	0	1	17	4.09
PNorton	1	2	1	1	0	1	21	5.73
Graves	2	2	0	0	0	0	18	2.89
TJones W, 6-2	1	0	0	0	1	0	22	3.31

Miller pitched to 2 batters in the 8th.

Inherited runners-scored-Riske 2-2, Robertson 2-0, Miller 1-1.

IBB-off RiWhite (Larkin) 1, off Harang (Laker) 1. HBP-by Westbrook (LaRue).

Umpires-Home, Jerry Meals; First, Derryl Cousins; Second, Paul Schrieber; Third, Ed Montague.

T-3:38. A-30,375 (42,271).