Padres’ Ascent To Top Continues
National League
Joey Hamilton bounced back from a shaky start to pitch 7-2/3 innings and the San Diego Padres beat the Montreal Expos 9-5 Saturday night to move within three games of first place in the N.L. West.
Brad Ausmus drove in three runs, Steve Finley and Ken Caminiti each had three hits and scored twice and Scott Livingstone hit a two-run homer. The Padres finished with 17 hits.
Hamilton (6-5) allowed nine hits, struck out six and walked three as San Diego won for a ninth time in 12 games. The third-place Padres are two games back of second-place Colorado in the N.L. West.
Cubs 6, Rockies 5
Denver
Sammy Sosa homered and Chicago, a day after coming close to setting team records for runs and hits, held off Colorado.
Sosa homered for the third straight day, a three-run shot in the fifth that made it 5-2.
Pirates 10, Marlins 5
Pittsburgh
Angelo Encarnacion hit his first major-league homer, a two-run, inside-the-park grounder down the third-base line that helped Pittsburgh beat Florida.
Kevin Young also hit a two-run homer as the Pirates overcame a 4-1 deficit and beat the Marlins for the third time in two nights.
Reds 8, Astros 0
Cincinnati
Resurgent Dave Burba pitched a two-hitter and Hal Morris had three hits, leading Cincinnati to a victory that kept them perfect (9-0) this year against Houston.
Burba (8-2), a setup man with San Francisco for the first half of the season, didn’t give up a hit until Derrick May cleanly doubled to right field with two outs in the seventh.
Mets 2, Dodgers 1
New York
Dave Mlicki, Jerry DiPoto and John Franco stopped Los Angeles on six hits and New York won its third straight.
The Dodgers lost their third in a row despite holding New York to three hits. Brett Butler, traded by the Mets to Los Angeles on Friday, had a sacrifice fly, and has driven in all three runs the Dodgers have scored since the deal.
Phillies 6, Giants 4
Philadelphia
Mickey Morandini’s solo homer in the bottom of the seventh snapped a tie and Philadelphia defeated San Francisco.
Morandini’s homer, his sixth of the year, came on a 3-2 pitch leading off the seventh inning against Sergio Valdez (1-3). Morandini is 9 for 21 against the Giants this season.
Cardinals 5, Braves 4
St. Louis
Scott Hemond hit a solo home run in the fourth inning, the only scoring after an 82-minute rain delay, and St. Louis defeated Atlanta.
Hemond connected against Matt Murray (0-1), homering for the second straight game. He has only nine hits this season, three of them home runs.
Clearing the bases
Jose Rijo expects to have surgery next Tuesday to rebuild his injured pitching elbow. … Columnist Jim Caple of the St. Paul Pioneer Press tracked down longtime Cubs fan and comedian Bill Murray to talk baseball - noting that Murray once played for the Grays Harbor Loggers of the Class A Northwest League. Murray made two plate appearances, both as a pinch hitter. He singled in his first at-bat and struck out his only other time up. “When you’ve accomplished as much as a baseball player as I have, it’s annoying to keep being asked these questions,” Murray told Caple. Murray complained he doesn’t get the recognition he deserves as a lifetime .500 hitter.