NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Blauser’s Hustle Helps Braves Beat Cardinals

The game was tied by a home run in the ninth inning and another homer produced the game’s final runs, but a ball hit by Jeff Blauser into the hole at shortstop in the 12th inning overshadowed the rest.

He wasn’t sure he could beat the throw.

“Any time you hit the ball to that side of the infield, you have to figure Ozzie (Smith) has a chance to make the play,” said Blauser, whose run-scoring single helped Atlanta win, 8-5, at St. Louis.

“I’m not the fastest guy in the world, but I was giving it everything I had on that play,” he said.

The infield single gave the Braves a 6-5 lead and kept the inning going. David Justice followed with his 15th home run.

Blauser, who began the game hitless in his previous 15 at-bats, had three hits.

“We got a couple of breaks,” said Blauser, who also scored three runs and drove in two. “That’s all right. We could use a few breaks.”

The Braves had lost five of their last six games and dropped 1 1/2 games behind the Montreal Expos in the East Division.

St. Louis tied the score in the ninth inning when Luis Alicea hit a rare home run against Greg McMichael. The Braves’ reliever had not given up a homer in 51 innings this season, and only one home run in his last 128 innings.

San Francisco 4, New York 2--Matt Williams hit his 36th homer and Barry Bonds his 31st at New York in a game delayed for more than four hours because of rain.

Williams hit a two-run shot in the first inning. Bonds led off the ninth with his homer for the Giants, who improved to 11-2 since Darryl Strawberry joined them July 7.

Bonds and Williams, batting ahead of Strawberry, have combined for 13 homers and 25 runs batted in in the 10 games Strawberry has started.

Colorado 5, Florida 4--Andres Galarraga drove in four runs with two home runs and Charlie Hayes also homered for the Rockies before 70,280 at Denver.

Galarraga’s 29th and 30th homers helped snap Colorado’s four-game losing streak. Marvin Freeman (9-2) limited the Marlins to two runs and eight hits in 6 2/3 innings. Freeman didn’t have a strike out and didn’t walk a batter, but got 15 groundball outs.

Bruce Ruffin gave up Kurt Abbott’s two-run homer with two outs in the ninth. He struck out pinch-hitter Robb Natal for his 15th save

Houston 11, Pittsburgh 0--Jeff Bagwell hit his 30th home run and Shane Reynolds (8-4) struck out 11 in his first major-league shutout to lead the Astros at Houston.

Bagwell, who had four hits, drove in four runs, giving him a 94, tops in the majors. He became only the third player in franchise history to hit 30 home runs in a season.

Cincinnati 3, Chicago 1--Jacob Brumfield singled home the go-ahead run in the 13th inning for the Reds at Chicago.

Kevin Foster took a three-hitter and a 1-0 lead into the ninth, but the Reds scored on consecutive doubles by Brumfield and Barry Larkin.

Ed Taubensee singled against Chuck Crim (4-4) to start the 13th, advanced on Thomas Howard’s sacrifice and scored on Brumfield’s single.

After a walk, Brumfield stole third and scored on Jerome Walton’s single.

San Diego 7, Philadelphia 1--Bill Krueger pitched 6 2/3 strong innings at Philadelphia and beat the Phillies for the second time since being recalled from triple-A Las Vegas on July 1.

Derek Bell homered, doubled and singled for the Padres and Brad Ausmus also homered.

Tony Gwynn had two hits in five at-bats and is batting .393, best in the majors.