CLEVELAND – Coco Crisp’s three-run double with two outs in the eighth inning helped the Cleveland Indians come from behind again to beat Cincinnati 8-7, the Reds’ fifth straight loss.

Ken Griffey Jr. remained stalled in his pursuit of 500 career homers, and the Reds’ slide continued as they failed to hold a 5-2 lead after five innings for the second straight night.

Cleveland scored twice in the seventh and four times in the eighth – capped by Crisp’s double – off three Cincinnati relievers. Phil Norton (0-2) lost for the second time in 24 hours.

Griffey went 0-for-4, striking out twice and drawing an intentional walk. He is still two shy of becoming the 20th player in history to join the 500-homer club.

The Indians, who have been making late-inning drama routine this season, trailed 5-4 going into the eighth.

Reds reliever Todd Jones got two outs before walking Casey Blake, and Norton came on and walked Travis Hafner. Ronnie Belliard followed with an RBI single off Danny Graves to tie it.

Belliard then kept the inning alive when he hustled to second and beat second baseman D’Angelo Jimenez’s toss on Ben Broussard’s fielder’s choice grounder.

Crisp worked the count to 3-2 against Graves before ripping his double off the fence in front of Cincinnati’s bullpen, scoring three to make it 8-5.

But as usual, Cleveland’s shaky bullpen made it interesting in the ninth.

Jose Jimenez gave up two runs before getting his fourth save.

Rafael Betancourt (3-4) worked a perfect eighth.

Matt Lawton homered for the Indians, who have won nine times in their final at-bat this season.

Jason LaRue homered as the Reds matched their longest losing streak this season.

Griffey, who just missed hitting two homers on Friday, popped out to foul territory near third in his first at-bat and struck out swinging to end the third as Scott Elarton blew a fastball by him.

Elarton, making his Cleveland debut, chose not to mess with Griffey in the fifth and walked him intentionally. In the sixth, Griffey came up with runners at the corner and two outs, but fanned against left-hander Cliff Bartosh.

He grounded out to second in the ninth inning.

On each of Griffey’s swings, light bulbs popped throughout the nearly sold out Jacbos Field by fans – several thousand from Cincinnati – trying to freeze frame history.

The Indians were again without catcher Victor Martinez, their best hitter and probable All-Star, who missed his second straight game with a sprained right foot.

LaRue made Elarton, who walked six – all on four pitches, pay for his wildness in the fourth inning. Jimenez walked leading off, stole second and went to third on a passed ball.

After Brandon Larson walked with two outs, LaRue drove a 1-0 pitch over the wall in deep center for his third homer, putting the Reds ahead 3-0.

The Indians didn’t get their first hit until the fourth when Lawton connected for his ninth homer.

Notes: Cavaliers guard LeBron James, the NBA’s rookie of the year and soon-to-be U.S. Olympian, visited with Griffey before the game. Later, James watched from a TV booth wearing C.C. Sabathia’s red 1975 Indians “throwback” jersey, a gift from the pitcher. … C Sandy Martinez started for Cleveland. It was his first appearance in a major league game since April 2, 2001, for Montreal.

AP-ES-06-12-04 2231EDT