Two Homers Put Griffey Back in Race

Could Ken Griffey Jr. be climbing back into the Roger Maris home run chase?

Griffey hit his AL-leading 46th and 47th homers, giving him five in eight games, as the Seattle Mariners routed the New York Yankees, 13-3, Sunday.

Griffey drove in five runs with his 34th career multiple home run game and a sacrifice fly to the warning track. Silent for the first half of August, he might be making a late bid to rejoin the home run race led by Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa with 54 each.

“He hits them in bunches. Let’s hope he stays hot,” Mariner Manager Lou Piniella said.

“He’s got 47. We’ve got a month to go. Let’s see what happens,” he said. “I’d like to see it happen for a few people. Records are made to be broken.”

Griffey did not comment on the pursuit of Maris’ mark of 61 set in 1961.

Last year, Griffey hit 12 home runs from Sept. 1 until the end of the season. His high for one month was 15 in May 1994.

A day after the Yankees became the first team in major league history to clinch a postseason spot in August during a full season, they looked nothing like a playoff club. A crowd of 55,341 watched New York fall behind, 10-0, by the fifth inning and saw its four-game winning streak end.

Most fans booed Griffey, but one man ran out to center field in the fifth to have the Seattle star autograph a football. Griffey obliged, but security personnel tackled the fan and later took away the souvenir.

Griffey hit a three-run homer in the second and lined a leadoff shot in the eighth for his fifth multiple home run game this season.

Later in the eighth, Yankee reliever Mike Buddie was ejected after hitting Rob Ducey with a pitch, causing the benches and bullpens to empty. There were no punches and no other ejections.

A half-inning earlier, Yankee third baseman Scott Brosius left the game after being hit in the back by a pitch from Jose Paniagua.