Rays/MLB

NL roundup

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published May 14, 2006

GIANTS 6, DODGERS 5: SAN FRANCISCO - It's beginning to look as if Barry Bonds' next milestone home run might come on the road.

The slugger spent another day stuck at 713 and one behind Babe Ruth for second place on the career list, going 0-for-3.

The Giants scored four runs in the ninth against Danys Baez (2-2), with Omar Vizquel hitting a sacrifice fly to right for the winning run. The Giants also got RBI singles from Lance Niekro and pinch-hitter Dan Ortmeier and a run-scoring double by Todd Greene.

Now, Bonds must hit two homers today in the finale of the seven-game homestand to pass Ruth before leaving town for a six-game trip.

QUOTABLE: "A couple of at-bats were better. The other ones were more or less what we've seen in the last 18 at-bats." - Manager Felipe Alou on Bonds, hitless in his last 13 at-bats

PADRES 4, CUBS 3: CHICAGO - Mike Piazza hit a three-run homer off Ryan Dempster in the ninth inning, and San Diego rallied for its 13th win in 14 games.

"Just elation," Piazza said. "Any time you get a chance to come back, especially in a game that (Greg) Maddux is pitching so well - we were fortunate."

The homer upstaged a fine performance by Maddux, who allowed an unearned run in 71/3 innings but stayed stuck in 15th place on the all-time wins list with 323.

Mike Cameron led off the ninth with a single to center off Dempster, and Brian Giles followed with a base hit to right. Piazza then hit his fourth homer of the season and 401st of his career.

QUOTABLE: "Let's not let my one (crummy) inning say what the game was all about." - Dempster

BRAVES 8, NATIONALS 5: ATLANTA - Jeff Francoeur hit a grand slam with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to rally the Braves.

Atlanta trailed 5-3 heading to their final at-bat against Nationals reliever Chad Cordero.

But the closer gave up three hits on his first three pitches: a leadoff home run by Brian McCann, followed by singles from Ryan Langerhans and Marcus Giles.

Edgar Renteria, Atlanta's leading hitter, attempted to bunt the runners over but Cordero managed to get a force on Langerhans at third.

After Chipper Jones loaded the bases with an infield single, Cordero had a chance to get out of the jam when he got Andruw Jones to strike out looking.

But Francoeur, who extended his hitting streak to 11 games with a run-scoring double in the first, drove a 1-0 pitch deep into the leftfield stands.

ROCKIES 2, ASTROS 1: HOUSTON - Luis Gonzalez and Todd Helton hit RBI singles, Aaron Cook pitched 61/3 strong innings and Colorado held on to break a season-high three-game losing streak.

Colorado beat Roy Oswalt for the first time, jumping on the Houston starter for four hits and two runs in the third inning. Oswalt had won all five previous starts against the Rockies.

Oswalt got on track in the fourth and retired 12 of the last 15 batters before being relieved by Chad Qualls. But the Astros couldn't muster much offense after scoring 12 runs and getting 15 hits on Friday night.

Mike Lamb had three hits, including two doubles, and scored in the sixth inning on a sacrifice fly by Preston Wilson to make the score 2-1.

NOTABLE: Colorado leftfielder Matt Holliday had a single in the eighth inning to extend his hitting streak to a season-high eight games.

CARDINALS 9, DIAMONDBACKS 1: ST. LOUIS - St. Louis slugger Albert Pujols became the fastest player in major-league history to reach 19 home runs.

Pujols reached the milestone in his 37th game, beating Mickey Mantle in 1956 and Luis Gonzalez of the Diamondbacks in 2001, by three games. Pujols added RBI singles in the first and fourth, hiking his major-league-leading total to 47, and flied out to the warning track in center field in the sixth.

He also struck out with the bases loaded to end the seventh against Brandon Medders, flipping his bat in disgust.

Pujols' heroics overshadowed a resurgent effort by Jason Marquis, who worked seven strong innings to end a four-game losing streak, and a five-RBI game by Scott Rolen. The RBIs for Rolen, including a three-run homer in the first, were his first since April 16.

The Cardinals have won seven of eight overall and are 14-3 against the Diamondbacks the last four seasons. They knocked out Claudio Vargas (4-2), who did not allow a run in his first two road starts, after beginning the third with three straight hits.

Pujols lined a 1-0 pitch from Vargas well over the leftfield wall in the second inning, a drive estimated at 404 feet, to give St. Louis a 5-1 lead. Mantle finished with 52 homers in 1956 and Gonzalez, who watched in leftfield as the ball soared over his head, had 57 in 2001.

Pujols, whose best homer total is 46 in 2004, was the second-fastest to reach 18 homers when he connected off the Rockies' Byung-Hyun Kim in the Cardinals' 35th game. He trailed only Cy Williams of the Philadelphia Phillies, who did it in 34 games in 1923 but then slowed considerably in a 41-homer season.

Marquis (4-4) allowed one run on three hits with four walks and one strikeout. The only blemish came on Conor Jackson's fourth homer leading off the second, which extended his hitting streak to 13 games.

The right-hander worked around two walks in the third when he caught Jackson looking at strike three.

Rolen's homer in a four-run first was his fourth, and first since April 16, and he added a two-run double in a four-run fifth that put the Cardinals ahead 9-1. He missed nine games due to a respiratory illness in late April and early May and had been struggling with his stroke since returning.

David Eckstein was 2-for-4, making him 10-for-20 in his last five games, and John Rodriguez had three hits and scored twice.

Vargas won his previous three starts, allowing only two runs in 20 innings, and had been 6-0 in his last seven road outings overall dating to last season. In three-plus innings he gave up eight runs on eight hits.

The Diamondbacks have lost four of five following a seven-game winning streak.

NOTABLE: Pujols has 220 homers with the Cardinals, tied with Mark McGwire for fourth on the team's career list. The Cardinals are 16-5 at new Busch Stadium, all of them sellouts. Marquis beat the Diamondbacks for the first time in three career decisions and now has a victory over every NL team except the Braves.

Eckstein leads the NL with 16 multihit games. Shawn Green had two hits and is batting .439 (29-for-66) in his last 17 games with 10 multihit games in that stretch.

PHILLIES 2, REDS 0: CINCINNATI - Philadelphia's Jon Lieber slowly came to realize Saturday night that he needed to be as close to perfect as possible to beat Dave Williams and Cincinnati.

Lieber was up to the task. Williams allowed just two hits in his first 62/3 innings, but Lieber took a perfect game into the seventh and gave up two hits in 82/3 innings.

Lieber didn't allow a walk and struck out six while throwing 110 pitches, 83 for strikes.

"I knew after the fourth or fifth inning that I couldn't afford to make a mistake," Lieber said. "When the other pitcher is pitching like that, you need to step up your game. It puts pressure on you."

Lieber retired the first 20 batters he faced before Adam Dunn lined a single up the middle past shortstop Jimmy Rollins on an 0-1 pitch with two outs in the seventh inning. Lieber regrouped to get Austin Kearns to fly out to right fielder Chris Roberson in foul territory.

The only other hit Lieber gave up was a two-out single to pinch-hitter Ken Griffey Jr. in the ninth inning. Tom Gordon got the final out for his 12th save in 13 opportunities to close out Lieber's third straight win.

"We were just talking about that," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. "If he gets on a hot streak, he can reel off six or seven like that. He threw strikes and kept the ball down good. We wanted him to finish the game, but once Griffey got that hit, I knew it was time to get him."

"He threw so many strikes, and he kept it off our barrels," said Reds first baseman Scott Hatteberg, who went 0-for-3. "We were either early or late."

The Phillies have won 12 of their last 13 games and have handed the Reds their first back-to-back losses at home this season. The loss guaranteed Cincinnati its first losing series at home this season.

Williams almost matched Lieber pitch for pitch. He allowed a first-inning single up the middle by Shane Victorino and a fifth-inning single to left by Sal Fasano. They were the only two Phillies batters to reach base until center fielder Quinton McCracken dropped Ryan Howard's routine fly ball with two outs in the seventh inning for a two-base error. David Bell followed with a run-scoring double to right field.

NOTABLE: Shane Victorino's streak of hits in consecutive at bats ended at seven with a third-inning foul popup to catcher Jason LaRue. Victorino singled in the first.

QUOTABLE: "We couldn't get anything going early." - Reds manager Jerry Narron

METS 9, BREWERS 8: MILWAUKEE - Paul Lo Duca hit a tiebreaking homer in the ninth off Derrick Turnbow to lead the Mets.

Lo Duca sent the 1-0 pitch from Turnbow over the rightfield wall, giving the right-hander his first loss since April 10, 2005.

Jose Valentin homered and drove in four and Carlos Beltran added a three-run homer for New York, which squandered a chance to give Jeremi Gonzalez his first win exactly a year between starts.

Chad Bradford pitched two-thirds of an inning to pick up the win, and Billy Wagner got the last three outs for his eighth save.

MARLINS 4, PIRATES 3: PITTSBURGH - Marlins catcher Matt Treanor delivered the kind of pointed message not always appreciated by a major-league pitcher.

And Scott Olsen escaped a jam with the help of Treanor's pep talk.

Olsen took a 4-2 lead into the sixth only to have Jason Bay single and score on Craig Wilson's triple. With the tying run on third and nobody out, Treanor went to the mound.

"I said, "Not tonight, we're not (losing) again tonight,' " Treanor said. " We had a plan with what we were going to do with the next few guys and it paid off."

NOTABLE: The Marlins became the last team in the majors to reach double digits in victories, winning their 10th in 34 games.

[Last modified May 14, 2006, 01:10:04]