Griffey, Phillips homer as Cincy blanks Pirates

Aaron Harang tossed a two-hitter for the Reds.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Aaron Harang threw a two-hitter for his fourth career shutout, Ken Griffey, Jr. and Brandon Phillips homered and the Cincinnati Reds beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 8-0 on Wednesday night.

Alex Gonzalez and Javier Valentin had three hits and Phillips, Scott Hatteberg and Edwin Encarnacion each had two for Cincinnati, which had won six straight before getting swept in a doubleheader by the Pirates on Tuesday.

Harang (14-3), who pitched at least eight innings in a game for the ninth time this season, walked one and struck out eight in improving to 11-3 lifetime against the Pirates. It was his 10th career complete game, and his first shutout since June 23, 2006, at Cleveland.

Shut down

The Pirates, who had won six of seven coming in, had been the majors’ best offensive club during August. The Pirates led all teams in runs and had tied the team record for most home runs in a month with 43. But Harang shut them down, facing just two batters more than the minimum and limiting Pittsburgh to three baserunners.

The first four batters of the game reached against Pirates starter Ian Snell — including Griffey, whose three-run shot to right scored Josh Hamilton and Gonzalez. It was the 592nd homer of Griffey’s career and 29th of the season.

The Reds made it 5-0 in the fifth when Gonzalez hit a sacrifice fly to score Hamilton and Phillips hit his home run to center. An inning later Hamilton drove in a run with a sacrifice fly and Gonzalez singled in Hatteberg.

Snell (8-11), who has lost six of his last seven decisions, gave up seven runs and 10 hits in 51⁄3 innings. He walked two and struck out four.

Valentin added an RBI double in the seventh.

Notes

Phillips has at least two hits in each of his past six games. The last Cincinnati player to do that was Todd Walker from Sept. 4-10, 2002. ... Snell is the 377th pitcher against which Griffey has homered. ... Thanks to Jason Bay’s double, Pittsburgh kept alive a club-record streak of 88 consecutive games with at least one extra-base hit.