NL: roundup
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published May 24, 2006
METS 9, PHILLIES 8: NEW YORK - Carlos Beltran led off the bottom of the 16th inning with a home run, lifting New York to victory over Philadelphia in the longest game in the major leagues this season.
The game lasted 5 hours, 22 minutes and there were 522 pitches.
Ryan Madson (4-3) threw seven shutout innings of relief for the Phillies but Beltran spoiled his marathon effort with his 12th homer of the season. Darren Oliver (2-0) worked four shutout innings for the Mets to earn the victory that stretched the Mets' lead in the NL East over the Phillies to four games.
Jose Reyes capped a furious New York comeback with a two-out, two-run homer in the eighth, tying the score at 8-8. The rally started when Endy Chavez beat out an infield hit and scored on a pinch double by Chris Woodward. Reyes, who had been 0-for-4, followed with his fourth homer of the season.
NOTABLE: This was the longest Mets game since 1995.
DIAMONDBACKS 7, PIRATES 3: PHOENIX - Johnny Estrada and Conor Jackson homered and Arizona beat Pittsburgh for their seventh victory in nine games.
Jason Bay hit two solo homers, giving him six in the last six games, but the Pirates still lost their third in a row and fifth of six.
Estrada tied the game with a two-run homer off Victor Santos in the fourth, then Jackson's three-run shot off Santos in the fifth put the Diamondbacks ahead 5-2.
NL West-leading Arizona climbed seven games above .500 (26-19) for the first time this season and improved to 6-2 on its homestand with one game to play.
Claudio Vargas (5-2) gave up two runs in the first, then blanked the Pirates for the next five innings. Vargas, claimed off waivers from Washington last season, allowed five hits, striking out five and walking two.
NOTABLE: With the Suns playing a Game 7 playoff contest a block away, Arizona drew the second-smallest crowd in club history Monday night (18,103).
PADRES 2, BRAVES 1: SAN DIEGO - Josh Barfield's bases-loaded grounder bounced off Chipper Jones' chest for an error and brought in the go-ahead run in the seventh inning as the Padres snapped a four-game losing streak.
San Diego won despite getting only two hits. The Braves scored on a homer by pitcher Jorge Sosa, a former Devil Ray.
Mike Thompson won for the second time in two major-league starts. He won his debut Wednesday, 14-10 at Arizona.
Mike Piazza started the winning rally by drawing a leadoff walk from Sosa and was replaced by pinch-runner Eric Young. Sosa loaded the bases with one out by giving up a single and a walk, then Chad Paronto came on, and Chipper Jones couldn't handle Barfield's grounder to third, allowing Young to score.
NOTABLE: Trevor Hoffman retired Chipper Jones and Andruw Jones with one on in the ninth to earn his eight save in eight chances. Hoffman is second on the career list with 444 saves, 34 behind Lee Smith. Padres ace Jake Peavy has slight tendinitis in his right shoulder, manager Bruce Bochy said.
CARDINALS 8, GIANTS 5: SAN FRANCISCO - Barry Bonds spent a third day stuck at 714 and watched Albert Pujols hit his 23rd homer of the season.
Bonds went 1-for-4 with a run-scoring single and Pujols hit a three-run shot to help Jason Marquis win his third straight start for St. Louis.
Former Rays outfielder Ray Randy Winn hit a two-run homer in the fifth to pull the Giants to 6-4 and move Marquis into a tie for first place in NL for home runs allowed with 11. San Francisco lost for only the second time in eight games.
But Marquis kept Bonds in the ballpark and got him to ground out in the ninth before Jason Isringhausen got two outs for his 15th save in 17 chances.
Isringhausen walked Mike Matheny with the bases loaded, forcing in a run, before retiring pinch-hitter Todd Greene and Kevin Frandsen to end it.
NOTABLE: Pujols connected for a three-run shot to left in the first off Matt Morris, who faced his former team after spending the previous nine seasons with St. Louis.
DODGERS 8, ROCKIES 1: LOS ANGELES - Kenny Lofton hit a two-run triple, J.D. Drew tripled home another run and Los Angeles extended its winning streak to a season-high six games with avictory over Colorado.
Brad Penny (5-1) allowed five hits over five scoreless innings, helping the Dodgers win for the 14th time in 17 games. The right-hander threw 104 pitches and was replaced by Tim Hamulack, who gave up a leadoff home run to Garrett Atkins in the sixth.
Jason Jennings (2-5) was charged with six runs - five earned - and 11 hits in six-plus innings. The right-hander has lost his last three starts against the Dodgers.
Jennings, the 2002 NL rookie of the year, has only one victory in his last eight starts overall - a shutout against Houston. He has received no more than two runs of support in any of his last four losses.
NOTABLE: Rockies' Miguel Ojeda was 0-for-10 throwing out runners trying to steal, until he erased Drew with a perfect throw in the fifth.
REDS 7, BREWERS 3: CINCINNATI - Ken Griffey Jr. hit his second three-run homer in as many games and drove in four runs to lead Cincinnati to victory over Milwaukee.
The Reds were losing 3-1 when Felipe Lopez and Brandon Phillips led off the fifth inning with singles to right off left-hander Dana Eveland. Griffey then hit a 1-0 pitch 411 feet into the stands in right for his sixth homer of the season and third in the last four games.
It was Griffey's 542nd homer, putting him 12th on the career list, six behind Mike Schmidt. Eveland is the 346th pitcher to give up at least one homer to Griffey.
Elizardo Ramirez (2-3) went five innings for his first win in four starts since beating Washington 4-2 on April 24. He allowed three runs and five hits with three strikeouts and three walks.
Chris Hammond and Todd Coffey combined for four innings of shutout relief.
NOTABLE: For the second time in two games, Griffey ran into the outfield wall while robbing a Milwaukee batter of a bid for an extra-base hit.
MARLINS 5, CUBS 4: MIAMI - Mike Jacobs hit a two-run single off Ryan Dempster with two outs in the ninth inning, giving the Florida Marlins a victory over the struggling Chicago Cubs and denying Kerry Wood his first win in 10 months.
Miguel Cabrera hit a two-run homer for the Marlins, who improved to 5-14 at home before a crowd of 10,979. They have won two straight following a seven-game losing streak.
Making his second start since shoulder surgery last Aug. 31, Wood struggled with his control but left with a 4-3 lead after five innings. He allowed two hits, walked five and struck out three.
Dempster (0-2) entered in the ninth to protect a one-run lead, but Florida loaded the bases with one out. After Josh Willingham grounded into a force play at the plate, Jacobs hit a liner to left-center that short-hopped the fence.
NOTABLE: Florida's Scott Olsen took the mound with a shiner under his left eye, the result of a scuffle with teammate Randy Messenger last weekend.
NATIONALS 4, ASTROS 1: WASHINGTON - Ramon Ortiz pitched seven innings, and Washington hit three solo home runs in a win over Houston.
Jose Guillen returned to the lineup and drove in what proved to be the winning run with a sacrifice fly in the seventh inning, but Damian Jackson, Daryle Ward and Alfonso Soriano provided most of the thrills with long drives in a ballpark that is becoming a little more homer-friendly by the day.
With the Nationals leading 2-1 in the eighth, Ward launched a shot that landed about 10 rows into the upper deck in right field, the seventh pinch-hit homer of his career and his second as a pinch hitter this season. Soriano, the next batter, followed with a drive over the fence in center, his 16th of the year.
Some of the Nationals have complained that RFK Stadium is a difficult park in which to hit the long ball - they homered in only 35 of 81 games last year - but that might be changing. Washington has homered in 13 of 18 home games this season.
Ortiz (2-4) allowed six hits, two walks and struck out five in a badly needed performance for Washington's injury-riddled pitching staff.
NOTABLE: The Nationals ended a streak of seven straight games with at least one error.