NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Rockies Win First Meeting With Marlins

No one likes losing to an expansion team, not even another expansion team, but the Florida Marlins had to live with that result Friday night in the first meeting between baseball’s two newest franchises.

Charlie Hayes and Jerald Clark hit homers, and Steve Reed and Darren Holmes provided solid relief performances, as the Colorado Rockies edged the Marlins, 5-4, before a crowd of 57,784 at Denver.

“I was just thinking about fighting for our sixth win,” Rockies Manager Don Baylor said. “We didn’t look at it as going out to play another expansion team. They wanted to beat us, too, to get the ‘W’--not because we’re an expansion team.”

After Reed (1-0) pitched 3 1/3 innings of one-hit relief, Holmes came on in the ninth and promptly gave up singles to Junior Felix and Benito Santiago. A fly ball advanced Felix to third.

But Holmes then induced Dave Magadan to hit into a game-ending 4-6-3 double play.

The Rockies spotted starter Bruce Ruffin a 4-0 lead in the first inning as Eric Young led off against Chris Hammond (0-3) with a walk and scored on Alex Cole’s triple. After another walk, Hayes hit his fourth homer of the season, a 365-foot drive that barely cleared the left-field wall.

Atlanta 3, St. Louis 1--Tom Glavine pitched four-hit ball for eight innings and slumping Ron Gant had a tiebreaking single in the eighth as the Braves defeated the Cardinals at St. Louis.

Gant, who had two hits in his previous 27 at-bats, singled with one out in the eighth off reliever Rob Murphy (0-1) to make it 2-1. Gant’s hit drove in Jeff Blauser, who had reached second on an error by shortstop Ozzie Smith.

Glavine (3-0) was relieved by Mike Stanton after the first two Cardinals reached base in the ninth, and Stanton got out of the jam for his major league-leading eighth save.

Houston 4, Pittsburgh 2--Greg Swindell gave up three hits in 8 1/3 innings and the Astros, shut down for seven innings by Dave Otto, worked over reliever Denny Neagle for three runs in the eighth to beat the Pirates at Pittsburgh.

The Pirates have lost six of their last seven games.

Swindell (3-1), who got off to an 8-2 start last year for Cincinnati, has won his last three decisions and is 9-4 against NL East teams the last two seasons.

Otto, the left-hander who failed to retire a batter in a 6-3 loss to the Dodgers in his previous start, left with a 1-1 tie after limiting the Astros to one unearned run and five hits for seven innings. Luis Gonzalez had a two-run double in the eighth against Neagle (0-1).

Chicago 7, Cincinnati 4--Sammy Sosa had two home runs and a single, driving in five runs to lead Jose Guzman and the Cubs at Chicago.

Sosa capped a four-run third off loser Tim Pugh (1-1) with his two-run single, homered with two outs in the fifth after Derrick May had reached on a fielding error by second baseman Bip Roberts, and hit his fourth homer in the seventh.

Guzman (3-1) did not have the form he showed in pitching a one-hit shutout in his debut with the Cubs April 6. He gave up Chris Sabo’s third homer in the second and was knocked out in a three-run seventh. Randy Myers picked up his fifth save.

New York 6, San Diego 1--Bobby Bonilla hit home runs from both sides of the plate and drove in five runs as the Mets beat the Padres at New York.

Bonilla hit a two-run homer in the first inning off Greg Harris (1-3) and added a three-run shot off reliever Pat Gomez in the eighth. Bonilla has four homers this season--all at home. He hit only .214 at Shea Stadium in 1992 with five homers.

Frank Tanana (2-0) gave up eight hits and one run in eight innings.

Montreal 7, San Francisco 2--Dennis Martinez gave up two runs in 6 2/3 innings for his first victory and Greg Colbrunn hit a two-run homer at Montreal as the Expos won their fifth consecutive game.

Martinez (1-3) settled down after giving up two runs in the first inning.

Marquis Grissom hit a solo homer, his third, and Colbrunn added his first in a four-run sixth against starter Trevor Wilson (0-2).