NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Benes Loser, Winner, and on the Same Day

It was a great day. Andy Benes lost $1 million. He also broke a 10-game losing streak.

Only in baseball.

San Diego’s Benes lost his arbitration case Friday afternoon, then came back Friday night to give up four hits and four runs--only one earned--in six innings of a 12-4 victory in Pittsburgh.

Maybe the $3.4 million helped.

Benes, despite a 6-14 record last season and the loss of 10 consecutive decisions over 18 starts, had been seeking $4.4 million. The Padres countered at $1 million less and won.

A few hours later, so did Benes.

“Andy had some distractions, and he did a good job of separating that,” Manager Bruce Bochy said. “He’s a professional. He said he’d separate them, and he did. One is business, the other one is performing.”

Benes struggled in the first inning, giving up three runs and making an error to help things along. Home run balls to Mark Johnson and Al Martin seemed like business as usual because he hadn’t won since July 3.

“Mentally and physically it was tough for me, but I was still able to go out and do the job,” Benes said. “I wouldn’t say I was on top of things, but I made enough good pitches and we scored a lot of runs.”

After getting through the first inning, the good pitches started, and Tony Gwynn and the Pirate defense provided the runs.

Gwynn had four runs batted in. The Padres scored five runs in the second inning--two on a passed ball charged to rookie catcher Angelo Encarnacion--then added six in the third. Seven of the 13 Padres to face Esteban Loaiza (2-3) had hits, and he gave up eight runs in two-plus innings.

Houston 7, New York 5--Jeff Bagwell lined a two-out, bases-loaded single in the top of the 16th inning to give the Astros a victory in New York in the league’s longest game of the season.

The Astros twice took the lead in extra innings, including 5-3 in the 15th, before settling things.

Reliever Eric Gunderson (1-1) retired the first two batters he faced in the 16th, but former Met John Cangelosi hit a check-swing chopper that took a wild hop off the fringe of the grass in foul territory along the first-base line and skipped past first baseman Rico Brogna. Brian Hunter walked and shortstop Tim Bogar made a diving stop to keep Craig Biggio’s single in the infield, loading the bases for Bagwell.

St. Louis 6, San Francisco 5--Ray Lankford hit a two-run home run and stole home to make new Cardinal Manager Mike Jorgensen’s debut a success.

Lankford, batting cleanup in place of traded Todd Zeile, homered in the first inning off Bill VanLandingham (0-1).

Lankford stole home in the fifth, scoring on the back end of a double steal with Chris Sabo. The theft of home was St. Louis’ first since Vince Coleman did it July 24, 1990, a week before the conservative Torre was hired.

Montreal 6, Cincinnati 3--John Smiley (5-1) gave up two-run homers to Moises Alou and Tony Tarasco as the Expos scored five runs in the eighth inning to win in Cincinnati.

Atlanta 2, Colorado 0--Brave pitcher Tom Glavine (5-3) accomplished something rare, a shutout in Denver, giving up six hits.

Colorado’s Dante Bichette had three singles, extending his hitting streak to 21 games.

Bill Swift (1-2) came off the disabled list and went five innings, giving up five hits and one run.

Florida 2, Philadelphia 1--Andre Dawson hit his 400th home run in the National League, helping the Marlins to a victory in Philadelphia. Dawson, 40, also has 29 American League homers.