DaytonDailyNews.com

ST. LOUIS — Alex Gonzalez, so worried 12 days ago about the health and well-being of his infant son that he left the team to fly home to Miami, displayed Tuesday night in Busch Stadium that he is worried no more.

His son is better, and Gonzalez's bat was booming during a 10-3 obliteration of the St. Louis Cardinals. The Cincinnati Reds' shortstop crashed two homers, hit a double and a single, drove in five runs and scored four.

Gonzalez carries a glove as his most potent weapon — the Reds signed him over the winter as the equivalent of a box car full of sand bags for the defense. Manager Jerry Narron insists, though, that Gonzalez's bat is a lethal weapon, too, and on Tuesday night the Cardinals felt the impact.

"Everybody talks about Alex's defense all the time, but I really believe he is capable of a big offensive season," said Narron. "He has hit 20 home runs before. And it was great to see him break out."

Gonzalez's first home runs in a Reds uniform overshadowed a historic home run by Ken Griffey Jr., his first of the year.

Griffey's two-run rip during a five-run fifth was the 564th of his career, moving him past Reggie Jackson and into 10th on the all-time list.

Nearly submerged in the rare offensive splendor of a season-high 17 hits was another impeccable performance by Aaron Harang (3-0) — 7 2/3 innings, two runs, five hits, one walk, five strikeouts.

Gonzalez missed an entire series in Chicago and the first game of the last homestand, tending to his son.

"It is very tough, that kind of situation, when you have family that is sick," he said. "I had to leave the team last year on Sept. 26 in Boston because my baby was very sick.

"Last week was a tough week for him, but this week he is doing very well, thank God, and I was able to clear my mind," Gonzalez added. "You think about it a little bit in the game. He is only 7 months old, and it is tough not to think about him. That day in Chicago was very bad because my wife called and said my baby was very sick, so you forget about baseball. Now he is doing very good, and I'm able to stay more relaxed."

Griffey's home run zipped quickly into the right-field seats and wasn't one of those monster-mashes that Jackson used to hit.

"I don't hit 'em as long as he did," Griffey said of Jackson. "I don't get the, oooh, aaah, oooh, damn!"

Passing Jackson and slipping into baseball's all-time top 10 was special because, "Reggie has been there for me, on and off the field and been a close friend when he was in Oakland and when he went to New York.

"We always keep in touch, even in the offseason, and when things happen with my family, he makes the call to see how I am," Griffey added. "It was overwhelming last year to tie him and now it's mind-boggling to pass him.

"When I started this game 19 years ago I never thought I'd be anywhere close to Reggie Jackson," Griffey added. "I just wanted to be a player like my daddy (Ken Griffey Sr., a .298 career hitter who hit 152 homers in 19 seasons). He told me, 'You're bigger and stronger than me and you'll hit a lot more home runs than me.' I was 13 or 14 then and laughed at him, but I guess father does know best."

The Cardinals, playing their second season in Busch Stadium III, don't want to hear anything about Home, Sweet Home, because so far this year, home is where the losses are.

The Cardinals fell to 1-8 at home, and it makes one wonder if their World Series championship last season was a hoax, a fraud, a figment of August Anheuser Busch III's imagination. After all, the Reds roughed up the world champions last season, winning nine of 15 games.

But the Cardinals are staggering this year, 8-11, while the Reds are 10-10.

Gonzalez gave the Reds a 2-0 lead in the second inning, hitting a two-run home runafter Edwin Encarnacion reached on shortstop David Eckstein's throwing error.

The Reds pushed it to 3-0 in the fourth, scoring a rare textbook run. Gonzalez doubled, took third on a ground ball by David Ross and scored on Harang's sacrifice fly to left, the first RBI by a Reds pitcher this season.

St. Louis reached Harang for a run in the fourth after he had two outs and nobody on, getting a ground-rule double from Scott Rolen and a run-scoring single by Scott Spiezio.

Griffey, who hit his 500th home run at Busch Stadium II in 2004, ignited a five-run fifth with his two-run homer, and Gonzalez followed with a three-run blast.

Gonzalez also made certain the St. Louis fans realized that his true calling is defense. In the sixth, he ranged far to his right to backhand a ball hit by Albert Pujols, then made a jump-shot throw to first base for the out — a Web Gem to go with his lumberwork.

"When you do good on the offense, you still have to make the plays on defense," he said. "When you do nothing with your bat, you can still help the team with the defense.

"Tonight I am excited because I had four hits, two homers, five RBIs and scored four runs and made two good defensive plays. I helped with the offense, too, but you can still win games with just the defense."

Helped? He made the Cardinals helpless.