Adam Dunn

Cincinnati outfielder Juan Encarnacion was hit in the right temple by a thrown ball during batting practice yesterday and scratched from the starting lineup. Encarnacion slumped to one knee after getting struck by a throw from second baseman Todd Walker before the game in Anaheim and was surrounded by teammates, manager Bob Boone, and general manager Jim Bowden. Encarnacion is listed as day-to-day. He left the field under his own power. Despite a 2-for-22 slump, Encarnacion is hitting .260 in 57 games with 38 RBIs and has 11 home runs, tying him with Adam Dunn for the team lead.

Alex Gonzalez scored from first base on Ken Griffey Jr.'s pop-fly single that fell among three Pirates fielders in the ninth inning, and the Cincinnati Reds overcame Adam Dunn's baserunning mistake that cost them two runs in a 5-4 victory over the host Pittsburgh Pirates last night. With Griffey getting three hits and scoring twice, the Reds came back from deficits of 2-0 and 4-3 to win their eighth in 10 games and split the four-game series despite being swept in a doubleheader Tuesday.

The Cincinnati Reds made a trade to clear room for their top prospect yesterday, sending outfielder Alex Ochoa to the Colorado Rockies for second baseman Todd Walker and a minor-leaguer. The deal between last-place teams gave the Rockies another versatile outfielder and gave the Reds a chance to bring up Adam Dunn, their most highly regarded prospect in years. Dunn, a 21-year-old outfielder who chose baseball over playing quarterback at Texas, hit .334 with 32 homers and 84 RBIs in 94 games this year at double-A Chattanooga and triple-A Louisville.

After seven weeks on the disabled list, Ken Griffey Jr. was back in center field for the Cincinnati Reds last night. Griffey, who tore a tendon in his right knee April 7, started and batted third against the Atlanta Braves. He hit .273 with one home run and three RBIs in the seven games before the injury. "It's been tough," he said before the game. "The only thing I really know is baseball and playing baseball. " The plan for now is for Griffey to play every other day to slowly work himself back into game shape.

Brian Schneider came up with the big hit just when the Montreal Expos needed it most. Schneider hit a tiebreaking homer on a full count in the eighth inning off reliever John Grabow (0-3), and the Montreal Expos defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates, 2-1, last night in San Juan, Puerto Rico. "I was not trying to hit a home run," Schneider said. "I was trying to stay alive and just get on base. " Schneider's ninth homer made a winner of Luis Ayala (1-6), who replaced Tony Armas Jr. in the eighth.

The reaction of fans was much different for Barry Bonds in front of the home crowd. Bonds received a standing ovation when he stepped to the plate for the first time yesterday in the San Francisco Giants' 6-4 win over the Atlanta Braves. Bonds saw all of eight pitches to hit, and 14 total. He drew his first two intentional walks of the season, struck out and grounded weakly to first. After the game, he made his way through the locker room to the trainer's table, saying, "Go get iced up. " He didn't address close to 50 media members at his locker.

As a pitcher and also as a hitter, Roy Oswalt got rid of the rust quickly. "Roy for just coming off the disabled list looked pretty good," the Chicago Cubs' Phil Nevin said after Oswalt pitched and batted the visiting Houston Astros to a 5-4 victory over the Cubs last night. Oswalt returned from the 15-day disabled list to get his first win since May 3 and the visiting Houston Astros collected 11 hits off Greg Maddux. Oswalt (6-3), who'd been out with a strained back and hadn't pitched since May 29, allowed eight hits and three runs in six innings.

Pedro Martinez blew 'em away. Carlos Beltran knocked 'em in. Everything was going exactly according to plan for the new-look Mets - until Adam Dunn exposed the one area they overlooked. Dunn's second homer of the game, a two-run shot, tied it in the ninth, and Joe Randa followed with a solo shot off Braden Looper that sent the Cincinnati Reds to a 7-6 victory yesterday in front of 42,794, the biggest crowd in Great American Ball Park's history. For the first time in their 129 season openers, the Reds finished one off with a homer.

Austin Kearns' bases-loaded double completed a six-run fourth inning as Cincinnati rallied to beat visiting Atlanta, 9-3, last night. Adam Dunn later added a pinch three-run homer, his major league-leading 17th, as the Reds won for the 11th time in 15 games. By dropping the first two games of the series, the Braves lost back-to-back games for the first time since April 11-12. Braves manager Bobby Cox, who turned 62 yesterday, was ejected for the second straight game for arguing with home-plate umpire Kerwin Danley.

The wind was blowing at nearly 40 mph, making every fly ball an adventure for fielders or a home run. Rain increased steadily and made the grass slippery and the infield muddy. Another wild weather day at Wrigley Field in Chicago before yesterday's game between St. Louis and the Cubs was postponed by rain in the top of the fifth inning. It wiped out 20 runs and seven homers, and spared Cubs starter Matt Clement the worst outing of his career. The game was postponed after a 64-minute delay with the Cardinals leading, 11-9.

Nobody got put in a headlock or punched this time. Of course, 19 years have passed since White Sox third baseman Robin Ventura charged Rangers pitcher Nolan Ryan on the mound. It set off one of the more legendary baseball brouhahas, featuring Ryan, then a 46-year-old sure Hall of Famer in his last season, wrapping Ventura, then 26, in a chokehold under his left arm while delivering vigorous right-hand hammers to the youngster's noggin. How legendary is the fight? Well, a video of the battle is regularly shown on the jumbo screen at the Ballpark at Arlington to fire up the crowd.

Jonny Gomes homered in his first three at-bats to back Bronson Arroyo's two-hitter and the Cincinnati Reds beat the visiting Washington Nationals 7-0 last night. Gomes hit two-run homers in the second and fourth innings and added a solo shot in the sixth to help the Reds take a 7-0 lead. He struck out in the eighth inning. It was the second time in Gomes' career that he has hit three homers. The first was on July 30, 2005, against Kansas City. He is the sixth player to hit three homers in a game this season; Pittsburgh's Andrew McCutchen was the last on Aug. 1. "This one's a lot more emotional for me," said Gomes, who opened the season in Triple A and did not join the Reds until May 22. "That was one of the best performances I've seen in a long time," Reds manager Dusty Baker said.

Albert Pujols hit a grand slam in the 10th inning for his second homer of the game and the visiting St. Louis Cardinals rallied to beat the New York Mets, 12-7, last night. Pujols had four hits and five RBI for the Cardinals, snapping out of a slump with his ninth multihomer game of the season. Ryan Ludwick also went deep and drove in two runs. The night was painful in another way for the Mets, who lost second baseman Luis Castillo in the seventh inning with a sprained left ankle after he slipped and fell in the dugout.

CC Sabathia's first week with the Milwaukee Brewers can be summed up with one key stat: Two starts, two wins. Sabathia homered in his first National League complete game to help host Milwaukee avoid a sweep with yesterday's 3-2 victory over Cincinnati. Sabathia went deep off Reds starter Homer Bailey in the third, his third career home run and second this season. Sabathia became the first pitcher to hit home runs in both leagues in one season since Earl Wilson did it in 1970 for Detroit and San Diego, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Welcome back Griffey Junior Griffey always seemed to be a born Yankee. A lefthanded pull hitter with a glamorous name (his father played for the Yanks in the '80s), a skilled centerfielder in the DiMaggio-Mantle-Bernie Williams mold, Junior in his prime had a charisma that seemed to go better on Broadway than Seattle or Cincinnati. Junior never got to the Bronx, although the trade rumors still linger in Cincy. But he demonstrated how well he would have fit Yankee Stadium yesterday when he pulled a Kyle Farnsworth pitch into the front row of the right-field seats for his eighth homer this season, 601st in his career, and first at Yankee Stadium since May 8, 1999, when he was with Seattle.

Cliff Lee and the Cleveland Indians got their comeuppance. Adam Dunn homered for the fourth straight game, and Joey Votto finished off the previously untouchable Lee with the first pinch-hit homer of his career yesterday, leading host Reds to a 6-4 victory and a three-game sweep of the Indians. "I haven't seen that in a long time," Reds manager Dusty Baker said. Rare things happened all around. For starters, no one had treated Lee (6-1) so roughly all season. The lefthander came into the game on an amazing run, having allowed only four earned runs and one homer all season for an ERA of 0.67.

Colorado Rockies righthander Kip Wells will have surgery today for a blood clot in his right hand. The Rockies said yesterday the operation will be performed by Dr. Robert Thompson at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. Wells, 31, had a blocked artery in his right arm in 2006, which had to be replaced by a vein taken from his leg. That surgery also was performed by Thompson. "They're going to take a look at where the clots are coming from," Rockies trainer Keith Dugger said.

Adam Eaton found little consolation in his line score yesterday at Great American Ball Park. "We lost," said Eaton, who allowed three runs in 7 2/3 innings in a 4-3 loss to the Cincinnati Reds. "But you want to give your team a chance to win, and I was able to do that. I'm kind of angry with myself the way I came out, but I got into a good groove and made some good pitches. " Ryan Howard crushed a solo home run to center field in the eighth inning to hand the Phillies a 3-2 lead, but Eaton elevated a pitch to Corey Patterson with two outs in the eighth, and Patterson homered to left-center field to tie it. The Reds scored a run in the ninth after Chad Durbin walked the first two batters he faced.

Working with a fastball that was past its prime, Pedro Martinez made a vintage comeback. Back on the mound for the first time in almost a year, the righthander got his 3,000th career strikeout yesterday and led the resurgent New York Mets to a 10-4 win over the Reds in Cincinnati. A victory and a little bit of history, too. "Can't ask for anything better than that," manager Willie Randolph said. "He's amazing. I shouldn't even be surprised, really. Pedro was superb. " Martinez (1-0)

Alex Gonzalez scored from first base on Ken Griffey Jr.'s pop-fly single that fell among three Pirates fielders in the ninth inning, and the Cincinnati Reds overcame Adam Dunn's baserunning mistake that cost them two runs in a 5-4 victory over the host Pittsburgh Pirates last night. With Griffey getting three hits and scoring twice, the Reds came back from deficits of 2-0 and 4-3 to win their eighth in 10 games and split the four-game series despite being swept in a doubleheader Tuesday.