NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Grahe Is Red-Hot for Rockies

With Billy Swift, Armando Reynoso and David Nied on the disabled list, former Angel Joe Grahe has come through to keep the Colorado Rockies winning.

Grahe, in his second start of the season, gave up two hits in six shutout innings at Chicago, and another former Angel, Dante Bichette, hit a run-scoring double off Mike Perez in the 10th as the Rockies beat the Chicago Cubs, 2-1, Friday.

“I was just using my defense,” said Grahe, who lowered his earned-run average to 0.96. “The wind was blowing in and I was able to use that to my advantage.”

Mark Grace got both hits off Grahe, who didn’t allow a runner past second. Grace doubled with two outs in the fourth and singled with two outs in the sixth.

The Rockies’ victory was their eighth in nine games.

With the score tied, 1-1, Kingery opened the 10th with an infield single off Perez (0-4), took second on Jason Bates’ sacrifice and scored when Bichette doubled into the left-field corner. Bichette was three for five despite hitting just one ball out of the infield.

Darren Holmes (5-0) pitched 1 2/3 innings, striking out three, and Mike Munoz finished for his first save since June 7, 1994.

After a 20-11 start, the Cubs have lost seven of nine games in June.

Atlanta 3, St. Louis 2--Mike Mordecai, inserted only an inning earlier as a pinch-runner, drove in his first run of the season with a 10th-inning single, giving the Braves a victory over the Cardinals at Atlanta.

It was Atlanta’s fourth consecutive victory but first in extra innings this season. The Braves lost their first four extra-inning games.

Mordecai, a utility infielder making only his 13th at-bat this season, singled over the head of left fielder Bernard Gilkey with one out off loser Rene Arocha (3-4).

Cincinnati 5, Houston 2--Ron Gant hit a pair of home runs at Houston as the Red improved to 5-0 against the Astros this season.

Gant, who has four of the Reds’ six homers against the Astros this season, hit an opposite-field homer with two outs in the eighth inning off Shane Reynolds (2-5), breaking a 2-2 tie and giving the Reds their sixth victory in seven games.

The Reds are now 8-1 on the road and 15-5 overall against Central Division teams.

Florida 5, Pittsburgh 4--Quilvio Veras hit a two-run homer and Chris Hammond pitched eight solid innings at Miami, extending the Marlins’ win streak to four games.

Hammond (2-1) gave up seven hits and three runs in 8 1/3 innings to out-duel Denny Neagle (5-3) and hand the Pirates their seventh loss in eight games.

San Diego 8, New York 4--Jody Reed’s three-run homer capped a five-run fifth inning and Tony Gwynn had two hits and two RBIs as the Padres beat the Mets at San Diego. Reed’s homer was his first since last July 30.

Joey Hamilton, who had one of San Diego’s six doubles, got his first victory in nine starts this year and his first hit in 58 big-league at-bats.

Montreal 9, San Francisco 3--Pedro Martinez (5-1), who pitched nine perfect innings in his previous start, gave up three runs and eight hits in five innings but still got a victory at San Francisco. Tony Tarasco, who went into the game in a two-for-19 slump, homered, singled three times and stole home.