Stats At Coors Field Difficult To Swallow

National League

The launch site at Coors Field in Denver is 14 games old and the reaction of fans, players and managers is just about unanimous: It’s a beautiful spot for a picnic, but a lousy place to play baseball.

In the first 14 games, including three last week between the Cubs and the Colorado Rockies, there were 45 home runs, 324 base hits and 209 runs scored. That’s more homers, hits and runs than any team in the majors had through 25 games this year. It’s more homers and runs than the Pittsburgh Pirates and Florida Marlins had combined in 50 games.

Conventional wisdom and the occasional survey holds that fans prefer more offense. But Cape Coors is ridiculous. It’s arena baseball. Any ball hit in the air, particularly into the jet stream that blows out to right-center, is a potential home run.

During the CubsRockies series, both starting pitchers homered in one game. The next night, Colorado slugger Dante Bichette got fooled, started to bail out and just reached a ball off the end of his bat that carried easily into the bleachers for his seventh homer.

Even Rockies manager Don Baylor admits the game really isn’t the same in his new home ballpark. But he has a suggestion: Why not use a special high-altitude ball?

“What are you going to do, make a $20 million facelift to the stadium?” said Baylor. “Why not change the specifications of the ball itself?”

Clearing the bases

Chicago intentionally walked Florida’s Gary Sheffield three straight times… . Montreal is 27-5 against Los Angeles since the start of the 1990 season.

Phils 5, Padres 4 (10)

Philadelphia

Charlie Hayes singled over a drawn-in outfield, driving in the winning run as Philadelphia defeated San Diego in a game marred by a near-serious injury to Phillies reliever Norm Charlton.

Charlton was hit in the forehead by a line drive off the bat of Steve Finley in the seventh inning.

X-rays showed Charlton has a fractured frontal sinus, but he is expected to be in uniform today.

Expos 2, Dodgers 1

Montreal

Carlos Perez pitched seven shutout innings for his fourth straight victory and Rondell White homered, leading Montreal past Los Angeles.

Perez gave up eight hits, struck out six and came out after issuing his only walk, to Raul Mondesi, leading off the eighth.

Astros 3, Braves 2 (10)

Houston

James Mouton hit a solo homer in the bottom of the 10th inning, giving Houston a come-frombehind victory over Atlanta and snapping a four-game losing streak for the Astros.

Atlanta starter John Smoltz struck out 11 and took a 2-1 lead into the eighth inning, but the Astros tied the game on Jeff Bagwell’s fielder’s choice grounder.

Cubs 3, Marlins 1

Chicago

Howard Johnson, the first batter after a 2-hour rain delay, hit a go-ahead sacrifice fly in the seventh inning as Chicago beat Florida.

Mets 6, Giants 3

New York

Bret Saberhagen pitched the first complete game of the season for New York, which snapped a six-game losing streak by defeating San Francisco.

Pirates 9, Rockies 4

Pittsburgh

Denny Neagle won his fourth consecutive start after Pittsburgh scored eight runs in the third inning and he went on to beat Colorado, giving the Pirates their eighth win in 10 games.