CINCINNATI (AP) -- Mark McGwire hits one nearly out of sight. Two innings later, Ken Griffey Jr. hits one that wins a game.

This is the NL's Home Run Central at its best.

	Mark McGwire's home run went an estimated 473 feet into the fourth deck in left field.

McGwire hit the longest measured homer in Cincinnati, a 473-foot drive into the upper deck, but Griffey's more modest homer led the Reds over the St. Louis Cardinals 3-2 Friday night.

The 42,126 fans marveled at McGwire's homer, which was the farthest of the 31 hit into the upper deck in the stadium's 30-year history.

"Well, I guess that's good for them," McGwire said. "But when you come out on the losing end, it doesn't do you any good, you know?"

Griffey broke a 2-all tie with a solo homer in the sixth that landed in the second deck in right field, an estimated 432 feet away. Griffey also had a run-scoring single in the first inning off Andy Benes (2-2).

He didn't stick around to talk about it, leaving Benes to explain what happened.

"I threw the wrong pitch in the wrong situation and that's my fault. That's why we lost," Benes said. "I've played this game too long to make that mistake. It was a fastball in. I threw to his strength and that's not very smart."

Flashbulbs went off whenever McGwire and Griffey came to bat in their first head-to-head regular-season game since June 25, 1997. As American Leaguers, they faced each other 53 times, with McGwire hitting 15 homers and Griffey getting 11.

They're 1-1 as National Leaguers, with McGwire getting one for the record books and Griffey getting one for the win column.

The Cardinals got back-to-back homers for the ninth time this season to take a 2-1 lead in the fourth. Jim Edmonds led off with his 11th off Ron Villone (3-1) on the first pitch.

McGwire then worked the left-hander to a 3-1 count before hitting an arching shot that landed in the fourth aisle over from the left-field foul screen, a few rows up.

"I watched it for a second," Villone said. "When the ball comes off the bat that loud, you don't have to watch."

Left fielder Dmitri Young watched it as best he could and was surprised at the estimated distance.

"They said it was only 473 feet," Young said. "I think the tape measure got a little case of alligator arms."

It was even more impressive than a batting practice shot by McGwire that landed on the walkway in the upper deck in left field and drew an ovation from the crowd.

Like Edmonds, McGwire has hit 11 homers this season. They've hit back-to-back homers in the last two games and have both homered in four of the last five games.

Pokey Reese's sacrifice fly tied it in the fifth, and Griffey led off the sixth with his eighth homer. Griffey's two hits in four at-bats raised his average to .209.

Villone gave up five hits in 6 2/3 innings and pitched out of a threat in the top of the sixth, when he walked Edmonds and McGwire to open the inning but retired the next three in order.

Scott Williamson got the last seven outs for his second save in three chances. Following one-out, ninth-inning singles by J.D. Drew and Thomas Howard, pinch-hitter Larry Sutton grounded into a forceout at second and Fernando Vina fouled out.

Until last year, McGwire never had much success in Cincinnati's stadium, which opened in 1970. It was the only stadium in which he'd played but never homered, going 4-for-27 with four singles.

He nudged one over the right-field wall last July 22 to break the homerless slump, and hit two more in September: an upper-deck homer on the 26th off Scott Sullivan and his 61st off Villone a day later. McGwire now has four career homers at Cinergy Field.

"Cinergy has been tough on me my whole career," he said. "I'm just happy to get hits."

Griffey also has gone head-to-head in one series against Chicago's Sammy Sosa this season. Sosa outhomered Griffey 2-1 in a three-game series April 7-9.

Game notes
McGwire's 533rd homer left him one shy of tying Jimmie Foxx for ninth place on the career list. ... His homer went 10 feet farther than Eric Young's homer in 1995, which had been the stadium record. ... McGwire has homered in eight of his last 12 games. ... The Reds had a moment of silence before the game for Brooks Lawrence, a former Cincinnati and St. Louis pitcher. It was Cincinnati's first home game since his death on April 27. ... Young's fourth-inning single extended his hitting streak to a career-high 13 games, longest by a Red this season.