NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Conine Powers Marlins to Victory Over Giants

Jeff Conine homered twice and the Florida Marlins broke out of a 23-inning scoreless streak with a club-record four home runs in a 10-3 victory Sunday over the San Francisco Giants before 19,810.

Gary Sheffield and Mario Diaz also homered for the Marlins, who began the day winless in four games. Diaz added an RBI double and an RBI single.

Florida Manager Rene Lachemann was relieved at the 11-hit performance by his team, which managed a total of five hits in its two previous games.

“For all the people that didn’t think we had one,” Lachemann said, “we showed we have an offense.”

John Burkett (1-1), who pitched for the Giants for five seasons, yielded three hits and three walks in six scoreless innings for the Marlins. He struck out five.

Matt Williams hit his first home run of the season, a two-run shot in the eighth, but Barry Bonds went 0 for two for the Giants. He is 0 for 11 with eight walks.

San Diego 7, Cincinnati 6--Steve Finley hit a bases-loaded sacrifice fly with one out in the bottom of the ninth at San Diego and the Padres swept the winless Reds.

The loss leaves the Reds with their worst start in 40 years.

Barry Larkin hit a two-out, two-run homer to tie the game in the top of the ninth and deny starter Fernando Valenzuela the victory.

Valenzuela recovered from a shaky start in which he gave up four hits and a run in the first inning to last five innings, yielding two runs and six hits before a crowd of 18,964, the Padres’ second-biggest since drawing 41,961 on opening night.

Valenzuela’s performance helped quiet critics who said the Padres signed him merely to attract fans from nearby Mexico.

“I look at it this way--I want to be part of the team on the field. If we have some better crowds, that’s great. But for me, the main thing is to help the team on the field, pitching,” Valenzuela said.

Houston 3, Colorado 1--Pinch hitter Luis Gonzalez singled in the go-ahead run in a three-run seventh inning that rallied the Astros at Houston, as the Rockies lost for the first time in five games.

Juan Acevedo gave up one hit over five innings in his major league debut for the Rockies and left the game with a 1-0 lead. But he was deprived of the victory when the Astros rallied against reliever Curtis Leskanic.

Montreal 4, Chicago 2--Wil Cordero’s two-run homer in the first at Chicago helped the Expos deny the Cubs their best beginning in 61 years.

The Cubs began the season with four consecutive victories to match their best start since 1969. They have not been 5-0 since 1934.

Paid attendance on a 46-degree day with a chilly 16 m.p.h. wind was 23,854. There were thousands of empty seats, although tickets remained at half-price and The Famous Chicken was providing between-inning entertainment.

St. Louis 3, New York 0--The Cardinals got a three-run homer from Danny Sheaffer to win, but played the game at New York under protest after Manager Joe Torre was ejected for arguing a call in the second inning.

Torre was tossed after Jose Oquendo was called out for interference following a bunt with two runners on base. Plate umpire Frank Ballina, who formerly worked triple-A games, said Oquendo ran inside the first base line. The ruling negated a wild throw by catcher Kelly Stinnett that resulted in a run.

The crowd was announced as 51,715, with all tickets being sold for $1. The actual attendance was about half that amount.