NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Alicea Remains Hot for the Cardinals With Five RBIs

The Atlanta Braves wondered what, or rather who, had hit them.

Fill-in second baseman Luis Alicea continued a spectacular hot streak with a triple, two doubles and five runs batted in as the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the defending National League champions, 8-3, Monday night at St. Louis.

Injuries to four second basemen have given Alicea another chance to play in the major leagues.

He’s batting only .200 (12 for 60), but in a space of seven at-bats, the Cardinals’ eighth-place hitter has had six hits, including his first home run since 1988, two triples, two doubles, a game-winning single on Saturday and eight RBIs. He has 10 RBIs for the season.

Alicea was hitting .114 (five for 44) when he was optioned to triple-A Louisville on April 28, but was called back May 6 because of injuries at second base.

San Diego 4, New York 2--The Mets had won 11 in a row at home, including the last three against the Dodgers, to tie a club record. But they couldn’t get past Andy Benes and the Padres.

Benes (3-3) rebounded from a three-start slump in which he had lost all three times and given up 18 runs in 16 2/3 innings. He gave up two runs, one unearned, on five hits in seven innings and struck out nine.

Houston 2, Chicago 1--Craig Biggio doubled in the 10th inning and scored on reliever Chuck McElroy’s wild pitch to give the Astros a victory at Houston.

Xavier Fernandez (3-0) pitched the 10th for Houston, which is 6-0 in extra-inning games.

San Francisco 8, Philadelphia 7--Will Clark drew a bases-loaded walk from Mitch Williams with two out in the 10th inning for the victory at Philadelphia.

Dave Burba (2-3), the Giants’ fifth pitcher, escaped a bases-loaded jam in the ninth and pitched a scoreless 10th for the victory.