Marlin Hot, You Could Look It Up
National League
Florida manager Rene Lachemann was so impressed with Chris Hammond’s performance Friday night he was at a loss for words. So he pulled out the dictionary from his desk.
“He had a very instrumental game, he was pesky, he was annoyingly troublesome,” said Lachemann, doing his best Casey Stengel impression.
The left-hander pitched seven strong innings, and Terry Pendleton and Tommy Gregg homered to lead Florida to a 6-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in Miami.
Hammond (7-3) allowed three hits, striking out five and walking two. He faced the minimum number of batters for 5-2/3 innings, helped by a double play and pickoff.
Hammond lowered his ERA to 2.50, third best in the N.L. Randy Veres pitched a hitless eighth, and Robb Nen finished. Hammond was coming off a July 13 tough-luck loss to the Dodgers which he struck out a career-high 10.
“I spotted my fastball early and was throwing the hard slider,” Hammond said. “I kept them off balance. I was throwing what I wanted.”
Reds 3, Dodgers 2
Los Angeles
John Smiley (10-1) retired the last 22 batters he faced for his 100th career win as Cincinnati beat L.A. on solo homers by Bret Boone and Jeff Branson.
Braves 6, Giants 2
San Francisco
David Justice drove in the go-ahead run off Rod Beck, who blew a save for the eighth time this season, and Javy Lopez’s three-run homer capped a five-run ninth as Atlanta defeated San Francisco.
Padres 3, Astros 2
San Diego
Joey Hamilton scattered 10 hits over seven-plus innings to break a personal three-game losing streak and help San Diego defeat Houston.
Rockies 8, Expos 3
Montreal
Larry Walker hit his league-leading 23rd homer in his return to Montreal, helping Colorado halt a three-game skid.
Pirates 10, Mets 9
New York
Nelson Liriano scored the game-winning run on a fielding error in the ninth inning as Pittsburgh snapped a six-game losing streak by beating New York, which dropped its sixth in a row.
Cubs 4, Phillies 0
Chicago
Chicago scored three runs in the second inning, two on Todd Zeile’s single, in blanking Philadelphia.
Clearing the bases
Charlie Hayes has played in every inning in 85 of the Phillies 86 games, and he has not made an error in the 43 road games. … Todd Haney’s homer was his second in the major leagues, exactly a year after his first one for the Cubs. … The Cardinals have now been outscored 57-17 in the second inning. … Montreal’s Ugueth Urbina, whose middle name is Urtain, is the only major-leaguer ever to have U.U.U. initials. … Behind Joey Hamilton, the Padres won in 2:28 on the first night of baseball’s speed-up rules. He had pitched the two quickest games this year, 1:59 and 1:55.