Williams’ Blast Carries Giants
National League
The suspense is over for the San Francisco Giants: Matt Williams is ready for the stretch drive and Deion Sanders soon will get ready to play football for the Dallas Cowboys.
Williams, who had been batting poorly after coming off an 11-week stay on the disabled list, hit a first-inning grand slam Saturday as part of his second straight strong performance and led the Giants to an 8-3 victory at Chicago.
Meanwhile, Sanders had three hits just hours after signing a seven-year, $25 million contract to play football for the Cowboys. Dallas owner Jerry Jones announced the deal about the time Sanders led off the game with a single.
“As long as we keep winning, we’ll give Deion a good reason to stick around,” said Terry Mulholland, who allowed seven hits in eight innings as the Giants won for the eighth time in 11 games. “I don’t know how happy Mr. Jones would be about that, but we’d like to keep him around until the end of October. The guy has contributed a lot to the team.”
Sanders, who helped the 49ers win the Super Bowl last season, won’t comment on his signing until a news conference Monday in Texas.
Williams said the team was glad to see an end to the speculation about Sanders’ future. More importantly, he was glad he was seeing the baseball well just as the Giants are climbing back into the postseason picture.
“It’s a question of timing, a question of my legs feeling good, a question of a lot of things,” Williams said. “It’s not like riding a bike. When you miss 11 weeks, it affects you.”
When the All-Star third baseman missed more than two months with a broken foot, San Francisco went 28-40 and fell from first place to last in the N.L. West. He came off the disabled list Aug. 19 and batted .186 in his first 18 games before going 4 for 5 Friday and 3 for 5 Saturday.
Phillies 6, Astros 4 (11)
Philadelphia
Mark Whiten hit a two-run homer with two outs in the bottom of the 11th inning to lift Philadelphia over Houston.
Heathcliff Slocumb (5-6), the fifth Phillies pitcher, worked a scoreless 11th for the win.
Mets 6, Expos 5
Montreal
Ryan Thompson homered and drove in three runs as New York beat Montreal. Thompson’s seventh homer, a two-run shot off Greg Harris in the fifth inning, gave New York a 6-3 lead.
Braves 9, Marlins 5
Miami
Fred McGriff hit a three-run homer in the ninth inning and Atlanta rallied to beat Florida, moving the Braves closer to their third division title since 1991. The win reduced the Braves’ magic number to clinch the N.L. East to three.
Cardinals 7, Padres 5
St. Louis
John Mabry hit a two-run double in the eighth inning as St. Louis wasted a four-run lead but came back for a victory over San Diego.
The Cardinals took a 4-0 lead after three innings, but fell behind by a run after pinch-hitter Archi Cianfrocco hit a three-run homer in the top of the eighth.
Dodgers 11, Pirates 2
Pittsburgh
Mike Piazza hit two two-run homers and ex-replacement player Mike Busch hit his first major-league home run to help Los Angeles beat Pittsburgh.
Piazza’s sixth two-homer game of the season helped the Dodgers remain in a virtual tie with the Colorado Rockies for first place in the N.L. West.
Rockies 6, Reds 2
Denver
Andres Galarraga drove in two runs with his second homer in as many days and Vinny Castilla added two more RBIs as Colorado defeated Cincinnati.
Clearing the bases
The Cardinals are 50-30 in games when they score three or more runs but are 3-43 when they score less than three. … Colorado’s Dante Bichette (34), Vinny Castilla (30), Larry Walker (29) and Andres Galarraga (29) have combined for 122 home runs, a higher total than eight other N.L. teams… . It wasn’t a very happy 30th birthday for Cubs third baseman Todd Zeile, who went 0 for 4 and let an easy grounder go through his legs for an error.