NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Cubs Are Goats No Longer After Reds Fall, 5-2

A goat, Ernie Banks and a meeting finally helped the Cubs win at Chicago.

The Cubs stopped their club-record home losing streak at 12 games, defeating the Cincinnati Reds, 5-2, on Wednesday for their first victory of the season at Wrigley Field.

“They say, ‘One game doesn’t make a season,’ but I say, ‘One win a life may have saved,’ ” said Cub Manager Tom Trebelhorn. “I never went through anything like this. I’m glad it’s over.”

The Cubs, who broke a 92-year-old club record Tuesday, held a team meeting before Wednesday’s game, then went out and won at Wrigley Field for the first time since last Sept. 22, when they beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 11-9. Chicago’s streak ended two short of the National League record set by the Boston Braves in 1911.

“We handled it like men,” first baseman Mark Grace said. “We didn’t blame anybody but ourselves. There was no front-office bashing. We didn’t take the cowardly way out. It feels like we’re in first place. It’s a huge win, a wonderful feeling.”

Banks, a Hall of Famer who might be the most popular former Cub, paraded a goat around the field before the game in a radio station’s effort to break a 49-year-old curse. Banishment of a saloonkeeper’s goat from Wrigley Field during the 1945 World Series prompted the animal’s owner to put a famous curse on the Cubs.

Steve Trachsel, the Cub starting pitcher, thought the stunt was bush league.

“It distracted me while I was warming up in the bullpen,” he said.

Grace, meanwhile, helped organize a pregame meeting in an effort to stop the streak.

“We talked about being enthusiastic and to hustle, and trying to get back to basics--things to give us a boost,” Ryne Sandberg said.

Trebelhorn juggled his lineup again, returning Sandberg to the No. 2 spot, starting Eddie Zambrano in right field, moving Sammy Sosa from right to center and benching center fielder Karl Rhodes.

Sosa led off the bottom of the first with a home run and Zambrano also homered.

“That first at-bat set the tone,” said catcher Eddie Taubensee of the Reds.

Trachsel (3-2) gave up two runs and four hits in seven innings, struck out two and walked three. Randy Myers, the Cubs’ fourth pitcher, struck out the side in the ninth for his fourth save in five chances.

Tom Browning (3-1) helped Chicago by giving up four runs and seven hits in 3 2/3 innings.

St. Louis 6, Colorado 5--Bernard Gilkey hit a two-run homer in the ninth inning against Darren Holmes to lift the Cardinals at Denver.

The Cardinals trailed, 5-1, entering the eighth, but scored three times against a faltering Rockies bullpen, then went ahead in the ninth when Todd Zeile doubled against Holmes (0-3) and Gilkey followed with his second home run.

Atlanta 3, Florida 0--Steve Avery pitched eight shutout innings at Atlanta to help the Braves end their worst losing streak in two years.

Avery (2-1) gave up four hits in eight innings as the Braves ended a four-game losing streak and won for only the third time in 12 games. The last time Atlanta had dropped nine of 11 was April 13-24, 1992.

Avery struck out eight and walked one in ending the Marlins’ three-game winning streak. Greg McMichael gave up two hits in the ninth but picked up his sixth save.

Houston 7, Pittsburgh 4--Craig Biggio of the Astros hit a go-ahead triple in the eighth inning and a two-run single in the ninth at Pittsburgh.

Scott Servais drove in a pair of runs as Darryl Kile (3-1) withstood his own wildness to beat Pittsburgh for the third consecutive time in the last two seasons.

Kile shook off a two-run Pittsburgh first to pitch five-hit ball over seven innings as the Astros swept the two-game series.