NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Reds Beat Braves in Ninth

Jacob Brumfield singled off the left-field wall with the bases loaded and two out in the ninth inning as the Reds beat the Atlanta Braves, 5-4, Thursday night at Cincinnati, giving new Manager Davey Johnson his second victory since replacing Tony Perez.

Atlanta tied the score, 4-4, in the top of the ninth on Mark Lemke’s two-out double. The Reds won in their half against Greg McMichael (1-3), who retired two batters before giving up a walk to Bobby Kelly, Bip Roberts’ fourth single and an intentional walk to Barry Larkin.

Brumfield, a late-inning replacement, lined McMichael’s second pitch off the wall for his second hit in six at-bats since being called up from the minors. His third run batted in of his career was by far his biggest, and it came on his 28th birthday.

“I’ve been looking forward to that situation,” he said. “That was my first opportunity to come up with a game on the line like that. There’s a lot of pressure with the game on the line. You’ve got to make the right play. You can’t make any mistakes.”

Chicago 5, San Francisco 4--Rey Sanchez singled home the go-ahead run in the seventh inning, and the Cubs went on to beat the Giants at Chicago.

Pinch-hitter Eric Yelding singled with one out in the seventh off Bryan Hickerson (0-1) and stole second. Sanchez singled with two out.

“I was just looking for anything I could hit hard,” Sanchez said. “I got lucky--he threw a fastball in.”

Willie Wilson and Derrick May had engaged in a heated clubhouse argument after Tuesday’s loss. Since then, the Cubs are 2-0. “We’ve had a lot of frustrations, like not winning a lot of games we should win,” said Sanchez. “We needed this.”

Greg Hibbard (5-3) pitched seven innings and gave up 10 hits. He is 4-1 with a 2.52 earned-run average in his last five starts.

Randy Myers pitched the ninth for his 15th save in 16 chances. He gave up a pair of singles to start the inning, but retired the next three batters.

Steve Buechele tied the score, 4-4, for the Cubs with a two-run homer in the sixth inning. Mark Grace walked and Buechele connected against Bud Black for his sixth home run of the season.

Pittsburgh 13, Florida 8--Tom Prince hit the Pirates’ second inside-the-park home run in as many days and the Pirates scored six runs off three misplays by Marlin right fielder Junior Felix at Pittsburgh.

Prince sliced a pitch to right field in the second inning that skipped past Felix and rolled to the wall. He slid home ahead of the relay throw for a three-run homer.

In the fourth, Felix missed a routine fly ball hit by Jeff King, allowing two runs to score. Al Martin doubled over Felix’s head to drive in a run in the fifth.

Bob Walk (6-3), who in 14 major league seasons had never won his sixth game in May, pitched 5 2/3 innings and gave up 11 hits and five earned runs. Ryan Bowen (3-5) took the loss, giving up four earned runs in three innings after giving up only four in his previous 24 innings.

Houston 8, Colorado 0--Doug Drabek pitched a seven-hitter at Houston, denying the Rockies their first series sweep.

Drabek (5-5) struck out three and walked one in his second shutout of the season. He has pitched four complete games, only one fewer than the Astro staff had last season.