NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Portugal’s Day a Big Hit with Giants

The San Francisco Giants, losers of five in a row, were looking for a hot bat. And they found it in the No. 9 position.

Pitcher Mark Portugal had three hits and limited the Cardinals to five in eight innings and the Giants won, 10-3, at St. Louis on Sunday.

Portugal had a run-scoring single in the first, another single in the third and a double in the fifth before lining out in the seventh.

“He hit a bullet that last time,” Giant Manager Dusty Baker said. “Those are some of the best four at-bats I’ve seen from anybody, hitter or pitcher.”

Portugal is 11 for 29 (.379) with five runs batted in.

“I try to take (hitting) seriously,” Portugal said. “They walked the No. 8 hitter to get to me, and you can go out there and help yourself if you just take a little pride and concentrate when you’re hitting.”

Matt Williams hit his 20th homer and had three RBIs.

The Giants entered the game with a major league-low .239 average and had scored only two runs in the first two games of the series. They took out their frustration on Rick Sutcliffe with six runs in the first inning. Sutcliffe (2-2) was coming off his best outing--7 2/3 shutout innings against the Dodgers on Tuesday.

The Giants had a season-high 17 hits.

Cincinnati 9, New York 6--Deion Sanders’ daring baserunning tied the score with two out in the ninth inning, then Jerome Walton hit a three-run homer in the 10th for the Reds at Cincinnati.

The Reds trailed, 6-4, in the ninth when Brian Dorsett singled with two out against John Franco. Sanders followed with a hard bouncer that deflected off shortstop Jose Vizcaino’s glove, and Sanders hustled to second for a double.

Lenny Harris then hit a slow grounder in the hole that Vizcaino fielded but threw late to first as Dorsett scored. Sanders scored as catcher Todd Hundley bobbled first baseman David Segui’s throw.

Pittsburgh 4, Colorado 3--For the second day in a row, Kevin Young hit a game-winning triple for the Pirates at Denver. His bases-loaded triple in the sixth was the key hit Saturday when the Pirates also won, 4-3.

Sunday, Young drove in the decisive run with a triple in the ninth.

Montreal 10, Chicago 5--Pinch-hitter Freddie Benavides tripled home the go-ahead run in the 13th inning at Chicago and Sean Berry had a three-run homer as the Expos, winning their fourth in a row, handed the Cubs their sixth consecutive loss.

All six losses have been at Wrigley Field, where the Cubs dropped to 9-20. They started the season 0-12 at home.

Houston 4, Philadelphia 2--Darryl Kile (4-2) gave up five hits in eight innings as the Astros won at Houston.

John Hudek got three outs for his eighth save, lowering his ERA to 0.50.

Florida 10, San Diego 5--Jerry Browne’s two-run double and Benito Santiago’s three-run homer in the seventh at Miami helped the Marlins complete a three-game sweep of the Padres.

Chris Hammond and Andy Ashby, who entered the game with two of the NL’s lowest ERAs, both gave up five runs. Florida’s Hammond lasted 6 2/3 innings, and Ashby only 4 1/3, giving up a grand slam to Kurt Abbott.