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Baseball
April 21, 2003
LOS ANGELES -- Fred McGriff, who took extra batting average trying to improve his .177 average, went 4-for-4 and the Dodgers dropped the Giants to 8-1 on the road with a 16-4 victory on Sunday night.
McGriff passed Mickey Mantle for 39th on the career RBI list, with his 1,510th in the fourth.
Hideo Nomo earned his 100th career victory. Shawn Green also had four hits for Los Angeles, which scored eight in the seventh. The Dodgers had totaled four runs in losing the first two of the three-game series.
The Giants took a 3-0 lead in the second on four extra-base hits. Barry Bonds became the visiting home run leader at Dodger Stadium, surpassing George Foster with his 24th homer.
DIAMONDBACKS 1, CARDINALS 0: Closer Matt Mantei struck out three of the last four batters, hitting 100 mph on the final pitch to Mike Matheny, to preserve visiting Arizona's victory. Two pitches were 99 mph and eight were 98.
"Matt was awesome," catcher Chad Moeller said. "His fastball was electric."
Rookie reliever Oscar Villarreal pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings after starter Miguel Batista was ejected.
The Cardinals put runners on first and second with no outs in the ninth, but Mantei struck out Scott Rolen and Miguel Cairo. After hitting J.D. Drew with a pitch, Mantei struck out Mike Matheny.
St. Louis, which had a league-leading .302 average, was held to five hits.
Leadoff hitter Craig Counsell had three hits. He led of the fifth with a double and David Dellucci, an unlikely cleanup hitter with 24 career home runs in five seasons, drove him in with a one-out double off Brett Tomko.
BRAVES 8, PHILLIES 1: Shane Reynolds, who began the season without a job, allowed two hits in 7 1/3 innings for host Atlanta. "It's been unbelievable to have a situation like this open up for me," he said. "Wow, this feels good." Reynolds, who was cut by Houston, didn't give up a hit until Ricky Ledee's bloop single in the fifth. He hasn't allowed an earned run in 12 1/3 innings since signing on April 10.
PIRATES 8, CUBS 2: Salomon Torres pitched five shutout innings in relief of injured Josh Fogg and host Pittsburgh ended Chicago's five-game winning streak. Torres started the second after Fogg strained an abdominal muscle and limited the Cubs to one hit through the sixth. Torres, who beaned Sammy Sosa in the fourth, left after being hit in the left knee by a Juan Cruz pitch in the sixth.
REDS 7, EXPOS 5: Pinch-hitter Adam Dunn and Felipe Lopez hit consecutive home runs in the ninth and Cincinnati had six homers. "It was a beautiful experience, with beautiful fans," pitcher Tony Armas said of Montreal's 10 games in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The Expos play their real home opener Tuesday.
BREWERS 5, ASTROS 4: Keith Ginter, acquired from Houston on Aug. 31, had a career-high three RBIs for host Milwaukee. "It does mean a little extra to get a big hit against them," he said. Ginter's sixth-inning single cut Milwaukee's deficit to 4-3, and his two-run single in the seventh put the Brewers ahead.
METS 7, MARLINS 4: Mo Vaughn, booed when he was 0-for-3 with a pair of strikeouts and an error that helped Florida take the lead, had a two-run single in the seventh for host New York. Art Howe became the fifth active manager with 1,000 wins.
ROCKIES 8, PADRES 0: Shawn Chacon and two relievers combined on the 21st shutout in Coors Field history as Colorado swept the three-game series.