Bonds Homers Twice Off Smoltz

National League

Barry Bonds broke out of a slump by homering twice and Jeff Kent homered and hit a tiebreaking single in the eighth inning as the San Francisco Giants beat the Atlanta Braves 5-3 Sunday at San Francisco.

John Smoltz (6-5), last year’s N.L. Cy Young Award winner, was tagged for five runs and eight hits, including three homers in seven-plus innings.

Stan Javier, Darryl Hamilton and Jose Vizcaino hit successive singles to load the bases in the eighth. Kent delivered a two-run single to left that broke a 3-3 tie and chased Smoltz.

Bonds, batting just .188 in his previous eight games, twice pulled the Giants into ties with his first two-homer game of the season. His two-out solo shot in the sixth made it 3-all. It was his 10th homer of the season and hit the scoreboard hanging from the upper deck.

Both of his homers came off Smoltz. The three homers marked the most Smoltz has allowed since surrendering four to Cincinnati on June 19, 1994.

Astros 9, Padres 0 San Diego

Darryl Kile pitched a five-hitter to win his sixth straight decision and Houston hit three home runs off Fernando Valenzuela.

Kile (7-2) allowed four singles and a double in pitching his second shutout and complete game this season.

Tony Gwynn singled with two out in the sixth to extend his hitting streak to 18, matching the second-longest of his career. He also tied San Diego native Ted Williams for 56th on the all-time hit list with 2,654.

Cardinals 9, Dodgers 3 Los Angeles

Tom Lampkin, Royce Clayton and Delino DeShields homered as St. Louis sent Los Angeles to its ninth loss in 12 games.

For the second time in four days, a Dodgers starting pitcher got into a confrontation with manager Bill Russell in the dugout. This time, it was Pedro Astacio, who lost his fifth straight decision.

Willie McGee hit an RBI pinch-hit triple in the ninth.

Expos 5, Cubs 4 Montreal

Mike Lansing’s one-out double capped a two-run rally in the ninth inning for Montreal.

The Cubs lost their four straight despite scoring four times in the seventh off Pedro Martinez, who struck out 13. Ryne Sandberg’s two-run single in the seventh inning off Martinez helped the Cubs take a 4-1 lead.

Phillies 3, Pirates 2 Pittsburgh

Philadelphia earned a rare road victory the way it usually does, with Curt Schilling pitching, and Ruben Amaro’s RBI single finished off a three-run seventh inning.

Schilling (8-5) shook off Mark Johnson’s second home run in six weeks, a two-run drive in the second, to allow five hits in eight innings. He struck out 11 and improved to 6-1 with a 2.21 ERA in seven road starts.

Schilling has accounted for 60 percent of the Phillies’ road victories.

Rockies 7-1, Marlins 2-9 Denver

Alex Fernandez pitched six shutout innings and struck out 10 Colorado batters, and Moises Alou had four RBIs to help Florida salvage a split of its doubleheader with a seven-inning, rain-shortened victory.

In the rain-interrupted opener, Andres Galarraga drove in three runs and John Burke pitched six shutout innings.

The Rockies took a 7-0 lead after four innings off Al Leiter (5-4), who threw a no-hitter against the Rockies on May 11, 1996.

Colorado’s Larry Walker went 3 for 6 for the day to raise his major league-leading average to .416.

Mets-Reds, ppd. Cincinnati

New York and Cincinnati were rained out on fishing rod day and will make it up today.

Clearing the bases

Barry Bonds has 29 multi-homer games in his career…. John Smoltz singled in three at bats and is hitting .424 (14 for 33)…. Chicago’s Shawon Dunston was helped from the field in the eighth inning after suffering a injury to his left leg running out a grounder.