Astros Top Expos For 9th Win In Row

National League

Mike Hampton earned his fifth victory this month and Sean Berry homered and tripled to extend his hot streak as the Houston Astros upped their winning streak to nine games by beating visiting Montreal 7-1 Sunday.

Houston moved within one victory of the club record of 10 straight wins. The Astros have done so three times, most recently from May 26-June 4, 1989.

Hampton (8-7), 2-6 at one point in the season, won for the sixth time in seven decisions and pitched his fourth complete game in his last six starts.

Berry hit his eighth of the season in the second for a 1-0 lead. He also drove in two more runs with a triple to deep center field in the sixth. Berry, formerly of the Expos, has five hits and five RBIs in his last six at-bats.

Mike Lansing of the Expos extended his career high hitting streak to 15 games.

Braves 3, Reds 2

Cincinnati

Greg Maddux pitched six innings in 152-degree heat on the field to collect his eighth consecutive win.

Maddux (15-3) allowed one run on four hits, walked one and struck out five as he improved to 11-11 career against Cincinnati. Going into the game, the Reds were the only team with a winning record against the four-time Cy Young award winner, who leads the N.L. in victories.

Rockies 4, Cubs 0

Denver

John Thomson pitched eight shutout innings as Colorado completed its first four-game sweep of Chicago.

Thomson (3-6) allowed six hits, struck out a career-high eight and didn’t allow a walk to win for the first time since June 11.

Jeremi Gonzalez (7-4) struck out Larry Walker three times. Walker went 0 for 4 and dropped to .386, his lowest batting average since the first week of the season.

Padres 5, Mets 3

San Diego

Ken Caminiti’s bloop RBI double highlighted San Diego’s three-run seventh inning.

Tony Gwynn tied the game with a seventh-inning sacrifice fly, giving him a career-high 91 RBIs. San Diego has won 13 of its last 16 games.

Dodgers 7, Phillies 1

Los Angeles

Roger Cedeno’s homer triggered a five-run sixth inning and Tripp Cromer also homered to help Los Angeles finish a three-game sweep of Philadelphia.

Tom Candiotti (7-3) won consecutive starts for the first time since June 21-25, 1995. The right-hander, demoted to the bullpen at the end of spring training, is 4-1 since taking over in the rotation for injured Ramon Martinez.

Cardinals 6, Marlins 4

St. Louis

Delino DeShields homered twice for St.

Louis and got his 1,000th career hit.

DeShields hit a two-run homer in the third inning off Kevin Brown (9-8), then connected for a solo shot off Rick Helling in the seventh. DeShields has three homers in two days and nine this season.

Giants 6-7, Bucs 5-10

San Francisco

Kevin Young hit a pair of two-run homers and Pittsburgh withstood three ninth-inning home runs by San Francisco to earn a doubleheader split.

Giants’ pinch-runner Shawn Estes scored from third on Marc Wilkins’ wild pitch in the bottom of the 13th of the first game.

Clearing the bases

In the second inning, San Diego’s Rickey Henderson tied Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle for fifth place on the career walks list with 1,735 then was picked off by Mark Clark. … Andruw Jones went 3 for 26 on Atlanta’s six-game road trip… .

When Tripp Cromer homered on July 10 at Dodger Stadium, his first for L.A., Candiotti’s wife Donna left her seat behind home plate and went out to the right-field pavilion, where an usher helped her locate the man who caught the ball. She bought it for $100 and gave it to Cromer’s wife, Michelle.