Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
SAN FRANCISCO - Reggie Sanders' two-run double in the eighth ended Sidney Ponson's debut with the Giants and gave the Pirates a 2-0 victory Wednesday.
Ponson, acquired from Baltimore at the nonwaiver trading deadline last week, held Pittsburgh scoreless for the first seven innings. He allowed seven hits and retired 10 in a row during one stretch. But the Giants couldn't give him a lead against Josh Fogg, who pitched six shutout innings.
In the eighth, Jason Kendall doubled and Brian Giles walked. Sanders, who played rightfield for the Giants during last season's run to the pennant, hit Ponson's 109th pitch over Barry Bonds' head in left, scoring both runners and snapping the Pirates' 19-inning scoreless streak.
Ponson, who was 14-6 with a 3.77 ERA with Baltimore this season, then tipped his cap to the crowd after he was removed.
The Pirates won for just the fourth time in their past 21 games in San Francisco, and the Giants lost at home for just the second time in their past 15. San Francisco is 13-6 since the All-Star break.
MARLINS 7, CARDINALS 3: Dontrelle Willis pitched eight innings and Ivan Rodriguez homered for visiting Florida. Willis, who beat Randy Johnson in his last outing, rebounded from a shaky start to tie the team record for wins by a rookie set by Brian Meadows in 1998.
Willis walked Bo Hart on four pitches to start the game and gave up a two-run double to Scott Rolen later in the inning but was virtually unhittable after that.
Eduardo Perez homered in the eighth off Willis, who allowed three runs and five hits. Working for the first time in a week because of days off for the Marlins, he struck out six and walked one.
In his past three starts, Willis has allowed five runs on 12 hits in 21 innings with 19 strikeouts and six walks.
DODGERS 2, REDS 1: Odalis Perez took a no-hitter into the sixth and Adrian Beltre hit a tiebreaking single in the seventh for host Los Angeles. Jeromy Burnitz homered in support of Perez, who won for the first time in four starts and the third time in his past 13.
The Reds tied it at 1 with no outs in the seventh when Barry Larkin doubled and scored on Sean Casey's single. But the Dodgers regained the lead in the bottom half when Robin Ventura led off with a double and scored on Beltre's single.
CUBS 3, PADRES 2: Kerry Wood struck out 10 and Sammy Sosa hit a 448-foot homer for visiting Chicago. Wood leads the majors with 192 strikeouts, and he moved within nine of 1,000 in his 133rd start.
Sosa hit a two-run homer off Adam Eaton in the fourth, his 25th of the season and 524th overall. He fell behind 0-and-2 on a curveball and 94-mph fastball, took a ball then drove a 93-mph fastball into the seats. Ramon Martinez was aboard on a leadoff single.
The Cubs made it 3-0 in the fifth when Kenny Lofton singled in Alex Gonzalez, who doubled.
BRAVES 10, BREWERS 2: Greg Maddux won his fifth consecutive game and Marcus Giles and Andruw Jones hit two home runs for visiting Atlanta.
Julio Franco also homered for Atlanta, which avoided losing three in a row for the first time since the season-opening series against Montreal.
Maddux is unbeaten in his past seven starts, allowing 14 earned runs in 46 innings. His ERA during that span is 2.74, and his last loss was June 30 to Florida. It was the second straight start in which he has not given up a run, a stretch of 11 innings.
Milwaukee reliever Brooks Kieschnick hit a two-run homer off Jung Bong in the eighth.
DIAMONDBACKS 3, EXPOS 2: Carlos Baerga's pinch-hit single in the eighth lifted host Arizona. Baerga looped an opposite-field hit that dropped in front of leftfielder Brad Wilkerson, and Alex Cintron scored from second with the go-ahead run.
Cintron reached on a two-out single off Luis Ayala and went to second on Raul Mondesi's base hit, setting up Baerga's winner. Mondesi overran second on Baerga's hit, and the rally ended when he was tagged out by third baseman Jamey Carroll.
ROCKIES 5, PHILLIES 1: Chin-hui Tsao allowed two hits in six innings, and Todd Helton hit a three-run homer for Colorado. Tsao, the first Taiwanese pitcher in the majors, retired 10 in a row during one stretch for his second win at Coors Field.
Marlon Byrd got the Phillies off to a good start with his first leadoff homer, but Philadelphia was shut out the rest of the way.
ASTROS 11, METS 1: Adam Everett hit the first inside-the-park home run at Minute Maid Park, and Jeff Bagwell and Richard Hidalgo homered and had three RBIs.
Geoff Blum also homered, and Lance Berkman had four hits. Everett hit a liner in the fifth that eluded diving centerfielder Jeff Duncan. Leftfielder Timo Perez tracked down the ball near the wall and threw to shortstop Jose Reyes. But Everett slid home ahead of the relay to make it 11-1.