National League

What a difference a day off made to Mike Piazza and Tim Wallach.

After being benched for a night with cold bats and puzzled psyches, they combined for five RBIs Wednesday to help the Los Angeles Dodgers rally for a 6-5 victory over the Houston Astros in L.A.

Wallach doubled home the tying and go-ahead runs in the eighth. Piazza narrowed the gap to 5-4 in the sixth with his 14th homer, ending a homerless streak of 13 games by the three-time All-Star.

“I’m sure the day off helped a little bit,” said Piazza, who drove in three runs after managing only two RBIs over his previous 17 games.

“My legs felt fresh and I felt pretty good up there. I just decided to cut down on my stroke a little bit. I think I’ve been trying to do too much with the bat and trying to hit the ball too hard. So I just choked up and got back to basics. That’s one thing you have to do when you’re struggling.”

Raul Mondesi, who scored three runs, opened the eighth with an infield hit off Jim Dougherty (6-3) and one out later went to third on Eric Karros’ single. Wallach, who struck out his two previous times up, drove a 1-2 pitch from Todd Jones to left-center for only his third hit in 24 at-bats.

Reds 7, Padres 4

San Diego

Deion Sanders hit a game-tying single and Thomas Howard singled home the winning run off Trevor Hoffman as Cincinnati scored four times with five straight singles in the ninth inning to defeat San Diego.

Braves 3, Pirates 2

Atlanta

Greg Maddux captured his 10th victory and Fred McGriff and Ryan Klesko hit homers, carrying Atlanta past Pittsburgh.

Rockies 5, Phillies 3

Denver

Dante Bichette and Walt Weiss each drove in two runs, helping right-hander Bryan Rekar earn a win in his major-league debut as Colorado beat Philadelphia.

Expos 4, Cubs 3

Montreal

Pedro Martinez struck out eight and limited Chicago to seven hits over seven-plus innings in Montreal’s win.

Mets 5, Cards 4 (10)

St. Louis

Bobby Bonilla homered with one out in the 10th inning as New York beat St. Louis for its sixth victory in seven games.

Marlins 3, Giants 1

San Francisco

John Burkett pitched a five-hitter against his former team and Greg Colbrunn hit his third homer in two games as Florida completed a three-game sweep of San Francisco.

Clearing the bases

S.F. shortstop Mike Benjamin, who set a major-league record with 14 hits in three games in June, is hitless in his last 20 at-bats and 8 for 62 over his last 20 games. … Houston returned outfielder Phil Plantier to San Diego in exchange for pitchers Jeff Tabaka and Rich Loiselle. … The Tampa Bay Devil Rays hired Chuck LaMar to build one of baseball’s two new teams from the ground up. LaMar, 38, formerly was director of minor-league operations for the Pittsburgh Pirates and is currently assistant general manager for player personnel for the Atlanta Braves.

Dodger pitchers have surrendered 22 of their last 27 runs with two outs. … The Braves won for the 13th time in 16 games but beat Pittsburgh for only the fourth time in their last 15 meetings. … Bryan Rekar, assigned No. 38 when he was promoted to the Rockies, requested a change to No. 56 - the same number worn by his cousin, linebacker Pete Bercich of the Minnesota Vikings. … Chicago’s Mark Grace leads the N.L. with 44 extra-base hits and 33 doubles.