Rose Jr. More Than Fulfills Dream, Gets Hit In First Major League Game

A couple of hours after they became the bookends to baseball’s all-time hits list, the Hit King and his son met in the stadium parking garage and embraced.

Pete Rose Jr. got a hug and a hit in a major-league debut Monday, and anyone who knew anything about him could figure what that meant: It was successful in every way that mattered.

Well, maybe every way but one. The Cincinnati Reds lost to the Kansas City Royals 7-4, but that will be merely a footnote to this bit of family history.

The main thing was that Pete Jr. - the one they still call Petey - made it to the major leagues and gave baseball’s record books a certain symmetry. Pete Rose is the first name on the hit list at 4,256. Pete Rose Jr. is the last at 1.

“It was everything and more,” Rose Jr. said, still wearing eye black and a sweaty No. 14 jersey. “Those nine years of bus rides, bad food, bad hotels, bad fans - it was all worth it.”

For nine years, Petey struggled in the low minors as he tried to reach a lifelong dream of playing in the majors, just like his dad. Part of it was his love for the game, part his need to make his dad proud. He finally got the chance Monday at age 27.

Tigers 4, Braves 2 Atlanta

Deivi Cruz squeezed home the go-ahead run in the seventh and Detroit ended Greg Maddux’s 10-game winning streak.

Brian Moehler (9-10) worked six strong innings against a Braves team that scored 31 runs in a three-game weekend series at Boston. He allowed six hits and two fourth-inning runs.

Maddux (17-4) had not lost since a June 13 interleague game against Baltimore, a span of 14 starts in which he gave up more than three earned runs only once.

Marlins 10, Orioles 4 Miami

Devon White hit a grand slam over the center-field wall and Cliff Floyd pulled a three-run homer 458 feet to power Florida past Baltimore.

A sellout crowd of 42,446 watched the first of a three-game interleague series between teams with the best and third-best records in the majors.

The Marlins won their third in a row and improved to 81-55, breaking last year’s team record of 80 victories. Florida is 10-3 in interleague play.

Rockies 4, Angels 1 Anaheim, Calif.

Harvey Pulliam hit a two-run homer and rookie John Thomson pitched eight strong innings as Colorado won its seventh consecutive game.

The loss dropped the Angels two games behind first-place Seattle in the A.L. West.Anaheim has lost five of its last eight.

Giants 8, Athletics 2 Oakland, Calif.

San Francisco’s J.T. Snow drove in four runs, giving him 20 RBIs in interleague play.

The Bay Area matchup drew 50,792 fans, largest crowd in Athletics history.

Phillies 5, Yankees 1 Philadelphia

Curt Schilling struck out a career-high 16 while Hideki Irabu left early.

Schilling (14-10), who pitched eight innings on the humid afternoon, raised his major league-leading strikeout total to 280. He also set a team record for strikeouts by a right-hander, passing Jim Bunning’s 268 in 1965.

Irabu (4-3) was chased before getting an out in the fourth inning, allowing all five runs and nine hits.

Indians 7, Pirates 5 Pittsburgh

Sandy Alomar hit a three-run homer in Cleveland’s four-run first and Pittsburgh never caught up.

The Indians and Pirates have coexisted 130 miles apart since Cleveland joined the A.L. in 1901, 14 years after the Pirates became part of the N.L., yet had never played a game that counted.

Mets 3, Blue Jays 0 New York

Jason Isringhausen took a two-hitter into the seventh inning for his second win and John Olerud homered off his former team for New York.

Isringhausen allowed two hits, walked six and struck out six.

Expos 4, Red Sox 2 (10) Montreal

Rookie Vladimir Guerrero hit a two-run homer with two outs in the 10th.

Mike Lansing singled with two outs off Joe Hudson (3-1) and Guerrero followed with his ninth home run.

White Sox 5, Cardinals 4 St. Louis

Rookie Magglio Ordonez, making his first pinch-hit appearance, homered with two outs in the ninth for Chicago.

Ordonez hit a 1-0 pitch off reliever Tony Fossas (1-6) over the wall in left-center for his second homer.

Brewers 3, Astros 2 Houston

Jeromy Burnitz had three hits, including a two-run double, and Milwaukee sent the N.L. Central-leading Houston to its fifth straight loss.

Twins 7, Cubs 6 Chicago

Pat Meares hit a tying, three-run homer in the fifth inning and added the go-ahead single in the seventh as Minnesota rallied past Chicago.

Paul Molitor had two hits, tying Paul Waner for 13th on baseball’s career list with 3,152.

Clearing the bases

Curtis Staker, 44, of Loveland, Ohio, who fell from the lower deck while reaching for a home run ball at Cincinnati’s Cinergy Field, was taken to a hospital and treated for broken ribs. … Florida added four players to its expanded roster, including utilitymen Cliff Floyd and John Wehner, who were with the team earlier this season.