Long-ball barrage by Reds

CHICAGO -- David Ross and the Cincinnati Reds felt right at home with the wind blowing out of Wrigley Field on Thursday.

The Chicago Cubs' friendly confines was even nicer to a visiting team, for once.

Ross hit two of Cincinnati's seven homers, a long-ball barrage that included Ken Griffey Jr.'s 605th, and the Reds avoided a sweep with a 12-7 victory.

It was only Chicago's 11th home loss this season.

"It was a hot and humid day and I've seen that ball travel here on these kind of days big time. Anything that was up in the air, you were always nervous," said Reds manager Dusty Baker, who skippered the Cubs for four years and knows all about wild games at the neighborhood park.

"That was big for the offense to break out like that and keep scoring. In this ballpark you're never comfortable. I don't care what the lead is, especially with the offense that they have over there."

Edwin Encarnacion, Brandon Phillips, Adam Dunn and Joey Votto also homered with the wind blowing out at 12 mph on a muggy day. The Reds tied their season high for homers -- they also had seven against the Cubs at their longball-friendly yard, Great American Ball Park, on May 7.

Backup catcher Ross had one homer all season before hitting solo shots in the fifth off Jon Lieber and seventh off newly acquired Chad Gaudin.

"I had a chance to play today and made the most of it," Ross said. "I think everybody wants to hit when the wind is blowing out here."

Griffey hit a three-run drive off reliever Michael Wuertz as Cincinnati scored four times in the fourth to take an 8-3 lead. He also had a run-scoring double and finished with four RBIs

"We were just trying to get base hits. Sometimes you get the ball in the air and it can go out," Griffey said. "The wind was blowing out."

Griffey's 12th homer of the season got him within four of tying Sammy Sosa for fifth on the career list with 609.

The Reds chased Ted Lilly (9-6) after 2 2-3 innings, his shortest outing of the season. The left-hander gave up six hits and four runs before he was removed by manager Lou Piniella.

"An ugly inning," Lilly said of the third. "I understand why Lou wanted to go in a different direction."

Mike Fontenot homered for Chicago, which dropped to 35-11 at home.

PHILLIES 4, CARDINALS 1: At Philadelphia, Ryan Howard homered twice and drove in three runs to help Philadelphia beat St. Louis. Howard lined a two-run shot off Braden Looper (9-7) in the first and connected again in the sixth. He leads the National League with 27 homers, two more than teammate Chase Utley, and 83 RBIs. Jamie Moyer (8-6), who won for the first time since June 12, gave up one run and seven hits in seven innings.

METS 7, GIANTS 3: At New York, Fernando Tatis homered, doubled twice and drove in four runs and New York won its sixth straight game. The Mets' winning streak is their longest since a seven-game string in August 2006. David Wright doubled twice, and scored the go- ahead run in a four-run seventh.

BREWERS 11, ROCKIES 1: At Milwaukee, Dave Bush had a career-high 13 strikeouts for Milwaukee, and Corey Hart celebrated making the All-Star team with his 15th homer. Bush (5-8) allowed one run and four hits over eight innings. He retired 23 of 24 batters after allowing a first-inning run. Hart connected in the seventh to make it 8-1 and found out shortly after the game that he beat out four other players in Internet balloting for the final spot on the NL All- Star team. Milwaukee pushed across six runs in the fourth to take a 7-1 lead. Ryan Braun had a two-run single and Prince Fielder added a two-run triple. J.J. Hardy hit a two-run homer in the eighth, his 13th of the season.

DIAMONDBACKS 7, NATIONALS 5 (11 INNINGS): At Washington, Stephen Drew and Chad Tracy drove in runs in the 11th inning for Arizona, which blew a two-run lead in the ninth and a three-run lead in the 10th. Drew's RBI double came with one out and Tracy run-scoring single was an out later and both were off Luis Ayala (1-5). Chad Qualls (2-6) pitched 1 1/3 innings for the victory.

The Diamondbacks led 2-0 after 8 1/2 innings and 5-2 after 9 1/ 2. Both times the Nationals had the winning run in scoring position with less than two outs.

Arizona third baseman Mark Reynolds made two errors in the bottom of the ninth during Washington's game-tying rally, then doubled home what turned out to be a needed insurance run in the 10th.

Diamondbacks All-Star starter Dan Haren struck out a season-high nine, walked two, and allowed three hits in eight-plus innings.

American League

INDIANS 13, RAYS 2: At Cleveland, Ben Francisco drove in a career- high four runs and Cleveland snapped a 10-game losing streak with a victory over Tampa Bay, the Rays' fourth straight loss. Cleveland last lost 10 in a row in 1979 and avoided its longest streak in 77 years by hitting four home runs to overcome a 2-0 deficit. The last time the Indians lost 11 straight was 1931, on the way to a team- record 12 consecutive losses. Francisco and David Dellucci hit two- run homers in a five-run fifth against Andy Sonnanstine (10-4). Aaron Laffey (5-5) earned Cleveland's first win since recently traded CC Sabathia shut out Cincinnati on June 27. Laffey allowed two runs and four hits over six innings, winning for the first time in five starts since June 12.