NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : New Met Linton Gets Two Gifts in Victory

First Doug Linton was presented with a 1993 World Series ring by the Toronto Blue Jays, for whom he pitched in four games last season before being claimed on waivers by the Angels on June 17.

Then he was presented with a 10-9 victory over the Chicago Cubs by the Mets, his new team.

The whole day was a roller-coaster ride in New York.

The Mets had an 8-3 lead, which was wiped out by Chicago’s six-run eighth inning that featured home runs by Sammy Sosa and Steve Buchele.

New York won it in the bottom of the inning on a two-run homer by Jeff Kent, his second of the game.

“I hit a mistake pitch,” Kent said. “(Dan) Plesac threw a fastball down the middle and all I had to do was put the bat on the ball. I could see it in his face that he wanted the pitch back.”

The Chicago reliever disagreed. “He had a good swing at every pitch I threw him,” Plesac (1-1) said. “I wouldn’t take it back.

“I wanted to keep it down and make him hit it in the middle of the field. He did. The only problem was that it went over 400 feet in the middle of the field.”

Linton (1-0) was the fourth Met pitcher, getting the final two outs of the eighth inning on fly balls and turning the game over to John Franco, who got the save.

Atlanta 6, San Francisco 1--Greg Maddux pitched a three-hitter at Atlanta as the Braves won for the ninth time in 10 games.

Rookie catcher Javier Lopez supplied most of the offense with two home runs and four RBIs for Maddux (3-0), who struck out nine.

Colorado 5, Philadelphia 0--David Nied allowed only two hits in seven innings and Dante Bichette hit his sixth homer at Philadelphia as the Rockies got the first shutout victory in their two-season history.

Nied (2-0) struck out four. Bruce Ruffin pitched the eighth inning and Darren Holmes the ninth for the Rockies, who were playing their 170th game.

The Phillies’ Curt Schilling (0-2) had a one-hit shutout going with one out in the seventh inning before Bichette homered.

Florida 8, Houston 2--Benito Santiago lined a three-run double and Kurt Abbott followed with a homer as the Marlins scored six runs in the first inning at home.

The feast-or-famine Marlins have scored 32 runs in four victories and nine runs in five defeats.

Pittsburgh 4, San Diego 2--Dave Clark put the Pirates ahead with a pinch-hit triple and Andy Van Slyke preserved the lead with a highlight-film catch in the eighth inning as they finished a three-game sweep of the Padres at Pittsburgh.

The Padres lost their fifth in a row. San Diego’s 1-9 record is the worst in the majors.