NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Rookie’s Balk Lifts Braves Past Mets, 4-3

Deion Sanders opened the ninth inning with a triple and scored on rookie Matt Turner’s balk with one out, giving the Atlanta Braves a 4-3 victory over the Florida Marlins at Atlanta on Sunday.

After Sanders got his seventh hit in his last eight at-bats, Turner retired Mark Lemke on a grounder to a drawn-in infield. Intentional walks to Terry Pendleton and David Justice loaded the bases.

As Turner (1-2) was preparing to make his first pitch to Ron Gant, he appeared to start, then stop his motion. Plate umpire Ed Rapuano called a balk.

“The pitcher came to a set with the hands together in front. If you break the hands and step off the rubber, it’s a balk,” crew chief Harry Wendelstedt said. “Once the hands come together, you can only throw home or to a base. You see this sort of balk every now and then. It’s not unusual.”

Said Turner: “I think it was a terrible call to end a game like that.”

San Francisco 10, New York 8--Darren Lewis’ two-run single in the eighth inning broke a 7-7 tie at New York.

An error by second baseman Chico Walker helped start the Giants’ rally. Lewis singled with the bases loaded against Mike Maddux (0-6) and Robby Thompson capped the three-run inning with a run-scoring single.

San Francisco led, 7-4, in the seventh before the Mets scored three runs against Dave Righetti and Mike Jackson (5-2). Eddie Murray, who homered in the first, tied the score with a two-run single to give him four runs batted in.

Murray’s homer was his 2,722nd hit, moving him into sole possession of 40th place on the all-time list ahead of Lou Gehrig.

Houston 9, St. Louis 4--Eddie Taubensee hit two home runs to lead the Astros at Houston.

Doug Drabek (7-8) gave up eight hits, struck out nine, and walked none in his sixth complete game of the season.

The Astros had only five complete games last year.

Taubensee drove in three runs with the first two-homer game of his career. He hit a two-run drive against Rene Arocha (6-3) in the second and his fifth homer of the season, a solo shot, in the fourth.

Philadelphia 8, San Diego 4--Ben Rivera won his fifth consecutive start and Lenny Dykstra had three hits and scored three runs for the Phillies at Philadelphia.

Rivera (9-3) gave up six hits and three runs in seven innings. He struck out six and walked four.

Tim Worrell (0-2), in his second major league start, gave up five runs on nine hits in five innings.

Cincinnati 7, Pittsburgh 2--Barry Larkin, Hal Morris, Joe Oliver and Reggie Sanders homered against the Pirates’ troubled pitching staff at Cincinnati.

It was Cincinnati’s third multiple-homer game in three days against the Pirates, who have lost six of seven. Cincinnati has nine homers in the first four games of the series, which ends today.

Colorado 3, Chicago 1--Jeff Parrett, in a rare start, stopped the Cubs on one hit through 6 2/3 innings at Denver.

Parrett (3-2), a veteran reliever who was making only his second start since 1990, faced 17 consecutive batters without giving up a hit after Steve Buechele had a two-out double in the second inning.