NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Chicago’s Castillo Teaches Padres a Lesson

Frank Castillo put on a pitching clinic Saturday at Chicago, but the Cubs are used to it.

Their victims, the San Diego Padres, are also getting used to it.

Castillo gave up three hits in 8 1/3 innings, and the Cubs beat the Padres, 5-0.

“Everything you want in a pitcher, he did today,” Cub Manager Jim Riggleman said. “He mixed his pitches real well, he pitched in and out, he kept the ball down, he really moved the ball around and he changed speeds.”

He also picked on the Padres, who started the season with so much hope at 4-0, the product of new ownership and personnel, but who have lost 10 of their last 12 games and are still the only team in the major leagues without a victory on the road.

Shawon Dunston hit a two-run homer to help keep it that way.

At 10-5, the Cubs are off to their best start since 1985.

Castillo (1-1) helped keep it that way, retiring the first nine batters, then escaping a bases-loaded jam in the fourth inning by striking out one of the new Padres, Roberto Petagine, on three pitches.

“I made the pitches when I had to and he swung right through them,” Castillo said. “Those were probably the biggest pitches of the game right there.”

Montreal 6, New York 1--Mike Lansing hit a three-run homer against Doug Henry to break open the game in the eighth inning and had four runs batted in for the second game in a row, leading the Expos at New York.

He had broken a scoreless tie in the seventh with an RBI double off the glove of left fielder David Segui.

Pedro Martinez (3-0) beat the Mets for the second time this season and improved his lifetime record against them to 6-0 with a 1.36 earned-run average. He gave up only four hits in 6 2/3 innings.

San Francisco 6, Pittsburgh 4--Rookie Joe Rosselli won his second consecutive start, and Barry Bonds had three hits at San Francisco for the Giants, who broke a four-game losing streak.

Rosselli (2-0) gave up three runs in the first inning after a rain delay of 1 hour 55 minutes, then settled down to become the only San Francisco starter to win in the last seven games.

Florida 8, Colorado 2--Bobby Witt (1-2) gave up five hits in seven innings and got home run support from Greg Colbrunn and Terry Pendleton as the Marlins ended a six-game losing streak and won for the first time in nine home games.

Witt (1-2), pitching past the fourth inning for the first time in four starts, helped end the Rockies’ four-game winning streak.

Colorado’s runs came on Larry Walker’s two-run home run in the sixth inning. It was the fourth consecutive game in which Walker has homered.

Atlanta 9, Cincinnati 6--Marquis Grissom’s homer at Atlanta highlighted the Braves’ biggest inning of the season, a six-run fifth, as they ended the Reds’ six-game winning streak.

Chipper Jones homered for the fourth time in five games as the Braves stopped their three-game skid. Barry Larkin homered twice, tripled and drove in three runs for the Reds.

Philadelphia 7, Houston 5--Charlie Hayes had two hits, including a run-scoring triple, and scored twice for the Phillies, who rallied to win at Houston.

The Phillies took the lead for good, 5-4, when Jim Eisenriech singled home Mickey Morandini in the fifth inning, and they got another in the sixth when Kevin Stocker stole home when pitcher Pedro Martinez threw to first base to keep a baserunner close.