NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Williams Hammers Phillies

Matt Williams took control when Ben Rivera lost his.

Rivera walked two batters, then put a pitch where he least wanted it, right over the plate. Williams responded with a three-run homer that rallied the Giants to a 5-4 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies in a game between division leaders Saturday at San Francisco.

“From what the guys told me, the last time in Philadelphia he had some control problems,” Williams said. “For four innings today, he threw the ball real well. He just happened to leave a changeup out over the plate.”

Rivera, tagged for nine runs in one inning in his previous outing against the Giants, had a 4-2 lead when he walked Robby Thompson and Will Clark to open the fifth inning.

Williams followed with his 23rd homer, driving a 2-1 pitch into the center-field bleachers.

“You can’t walk two guys ahead of Williams,” Phillie Manager Jim Fregosi said. “Williams did what he was supposed to do--hit it out.”

Atlanta 11, Pittsburgh 6--Fred McGriff’s fourth home run in five games with the Braves at Atlanta helped the Braves take their fifth victory in seven games against the Pirates since the All-Star break.

Deion Sanders, who went four for five, Ron Gant and Terry Pendleton also homered for the Braves. Ben Shelton, Carlos Garcia and Dave Clark connected for the Pirates.

Sanders had three runs batted in and hit his first homer since April 15. Gant hit a three-run homer and Pendleton added a two-run shot.

Chicago 7, Houston 6--Derrick May drove in three runs with a first-inning double and the Cubs hung on to win at Houston, ending a five-game losing streak against the Astros.

Frank Castillo (4-6) gave up two runs and five hits in 6 2/3 innings as the Cubs beat the Astros for the third time in 11 games this season.

Houston trailed, 7-2, going to the bottom of the ninth, but pinch-hitter Rick Parker singled in a run against Randy Myers and pinch-hitter Chris James followed with a three-run homer.

Florida 2, Cincinnati 0--Ryan Bowen pitched eight scoreless innings and drove in the go-ahead run to lead the Marlins at Miami.

Bowen (6-9) gave up four singles and struck out a career-high eight batters before being relieved by Bryan Harvey, who got the final three outs for his 28th save in 30 chances.

No Cincinnati batter reached third base.

Red rookie Larry Luebbers (2-2) gave up two runs and six hits in six innings.

Colorado 9, St. Louis 8--Charlie Hayes drove in four runs, including a three-run homer, leading the Rockies past the Cardinals before a Mile High Stadium crowd of 71,784--the largest crowd for a night game in National League history.

The crowd, the Rockies’ third sellout of the season, eclipsed the previous National League standard for a night game of 67,550 set April 12, 1960, in the Dodgers’ home opener at the Coliseum against the Chicago Cubs. The major league night-game record is 78,382 set in 1948 at Cleveland.

Bernard Gilkey’s two-run homer in the second inning helped the Cardinals take a 4-0 lead.

But the Rockies battled back against Donovan Osborne (9-4) to tie in their half of the second. After singles by Andres Galarraga and Hayes, Chris Jones brought one run home with a fielder’s choice grounder. Danny Sheaffer followed with a run-scoring single, and Eric Young hit a two-run single.

San Diego 11, Montreal 4--Rookie Tim Worrell gave up only three hits over eight innings at San Diego for his first major league victory to help the Padres end a streak of eight consecutive losses to the Expos.

Ricky Gutierrez put the Padres ahead, 4-3, in the fifth inning with his second homer of the season. Derek Bell had a two-run homer, his first since June 19, to tie the score in the fourth.

Worrell (1-3), the brother of the Dodgers’ Todd, gave up three runs--two earned--in his fifth start since joining the Padres on June 24 from triple-A Las Vegas. He struck out five and walked five, and Tim Mauser pitched the ninth.