Griffey Dines As Blue Jays Serve Up Hrs

Ken Griffey Jr. found a new favorite restaurant Friday night.

Griffey hit two home runs, including a drive over the Hard Rock Cafe in deep right field at SkyDome, powering the Seattle Mariners past the Toronto Blue Jays 9-6.

Griffey’s shot was estimated at 451 feet, the longest ball hit to right field at SkyDome. Only Jose Canseco’s homer into the fifth deck in left field for Oakland in the 1989 A.L. playoffs traveled farther at the ballpark.

“It was a changeup and I just dropped the head of the bat on it,” said Griffey, tied for the major league lead with five homers.

The long homer came in the seventh inning after Joey Cora walked and took third on Rich Amaral’s single. Griffey connected on a 3-2 pitch from Giovanni Carrara.

“In that situation, I’m just trying to get the ball to the outfield because we’ve got a guy on third with less than two outs,” Griffey said.

Griffey, whose homer put the Mariners ahead 8-2, got a big cheer from the 31,293 fans as he rounded the bases.

Griffey drove in four runs, scored three and went 3 for 4. Jay Buhner and Edgar Martinez also homered for the Mariners.

Griffey hit a solo shot off Paul Quantrill for a 4-0 lead in the third.

Sterling Hitchcock (3-0) improved to 4-0 lifetime against the Blue Jays. He allowed three runs on six hits in 6-2/3 innings, striking out five and walking four.

“Last year, I’d throw two really good games and then two awful games,” Hitchcock said. “So this was an important win for us. But if we don’t put up runs early, it’s a different game. That three-spot in the first really helped.”

Quantrill (0-2) gave up five runs, three of them earned, on six hits in five innings.

“He’s unbelievable,” Quantrill said of Griffey. “They compare him to (Barry) Bonds, but he can do some things that I don’t know if anyone else can do. Anything offspeed he crushes. He’s probably as good as anyone when you go away on him. He just doesn’t have any weaknesses.”

Ed Sprague homered and drove in four runs for Toronto. John Olerud also homered for the Blue Jays.

Joey Cora walked in the Seattle seventh, Rich Amaral singled and Griffey homered. One out later, Buhner hit his second homer of the year for a 9-2 lead.

The Mariners scored three times in the first. Amaral walked with one out, Griffey singled and Martinez reached on an error by shortstop Alex Gonzalez, enabling one run to score, Buhner followed with an RBI single and Paul Sorrento had a sacrifice fly.

Martinez hit his first homer of the season, putting Seattle ahead 5-0 in the fifth.

Sprague hit a two-run single in the Toronto fifth and Olerud’s third homer of the season chased Hitchcock in the seventh.

Notes

Hitchcock beat Toronto three times last year while with the New York Yankees, defeating Pat Hentgen all three times… The Mariners have 81 hits this season, 43 for extra hases… Olerud, out of Washington State, matched his SkyDome homer total from 1995. He had just one homer at home last year.

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