Smoltz On Track Again With 17th Win
National League
John Smoltz earned his major league-leading 17th victory, striking out 10 and pitching the Atlanta Braves past the St. Louis Cardinals 3-2 Tuesday night.
Chipper Jones and Marquis Grissom each homered as the Braves improved to 5-0 at Busch Stadium this year.
Smoltz (17-4) gave up five hits and walked two in eight innings. He increased his strikeout total to 176, also most in the majors.
Smoltz won his third straight decision following a slump in which he lost three in a row. The victory came on the eighth anniversary of his first win in the majors.
Cubs 9, Giants 6 San Francisco
Sammy Sosa hit two homers as Chicago rallied from a 5-1 deficit.
Sosa broke a 5-5 tie with his league-leading 33rd homer, a three-run shot in the Cubs’ five-run seventh. An inning earlier, he hit a two-run homer off San Francisco starter Shawn Estes.
Rockies 10, Mets 7 Rockies 11, Mets 10 Denver
Colorado, despite blowing big leads in both games, completed a doubleheader sweep when Eric Young’s RBI single in the bottom of the ninth gave it a victory over New York in the second game.
Colorado won the opener after blowing a six-run lead. The Rockies scored three runs in the eighth on Quinton McCracken’s tie-breaking single and Young’s two-run single.
Reds 5, Phillies 3 Philadelphia
Barry Larkin homered twice and drove in all five runs, leading Kevin Jarvis and Cincinnati past Philadelphia for the seventh consecutive time this season.
Jarvis (4-2) scattered nine hits in Cincinnati’s third straight win. The Phillies have lost 10 of 11.
Dodgers 7, Marlins 1 Miami
Mike Busch hit a three-run double for Los Angeles after Florida’s Al Leiter walked three straight batters in the fourth.
Leiter (10-9), who pitched a no-hitter earlier this season against Colorado, allowed one hit and struck out eight in six innings.
Pirates 5, Expos 1 Pittsburgh
Pinch-hitter Mike Kingery hit a grand slam in the sixth and Jon Lieber pitched seven solid innings.
Kingery’s second career grand slam was the first by a Pittsburgh pinch-hitter since Curtis Wilkerson hit one off St. Louis’ Lee Smith on Sept. 19, 1991.
Padres 7, Astros 4 Houston
Mike Hampton allowed the go-ahead run to score in the fifth when he hit a batter with the bases loaded and John Hudek balked home another run as San Diego beat Houston.
San Diego’s John Flaherty extended his hitting streak to 24 games, best in the majors this season, with a second-inning single.
Pirates deal Darwin
Pittsburgh traded Danny Darwin to Houston and placed Paul Wagner on the 60-day disabled list.
Darwin, who was scheduled to start Tuesday against Montreal, was traded for minor league right-hander Rich Loiselle. The 40-year-old was 7-9 with a 3.02 earned-run average after making the Pirates as a non-roster player.
Gagne may stay in L.A.
Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Greg Gagne, who still has an informal invitation to return next season, said he is strongly leaning toward returning for one more season with the team.