NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Pirate Rookie No Longer Considering Retirement

Mark Johnson had spent three seasons in double-A and retirement loomed. The man went to Dartmouth, so he figured he could do better. He had played quarterback there, and the Canadian Football League was a possibility.

But he was in the Pittsburgh Pirate organization, where strange things happen, and just as another line of work seemed inevitable he found himself standing out in an abbreviated spring training and, shortly thereafter, in the big leagues.

On Tuesday, he found himself hitting a home run to break a tie and lead the Pirates to a 5-3 victory over San Francisco at Pittsburgh.

Mark Carreon’s second homer of the game and Robby Thompson’s RBI single in the sixth inning against Esteban Loaiza (3-3) tied the score, 3-3, in the sixth inning, but Johnson’s homer in the bottom of the inning took care of that.

“I kind of felt like I let us down with my first couple of at-bats,” said Johnson, who had stranded three runners. “I was disappointed with myself, and I tend to get fired up a little bit out there.”

Johnson has a team-high eight homers and 17 RBIs.

Philadelphia 8, New York 2--Tyler Green (6-4) scattered eight hits in his National League-leading fourth complete game and lowered his earned-run average to 2.87 in winning at New York.

Charlie Hayes had two RBI singles, Mariano Duncan and Kevin Stocker had two-run singles and Darren Daulton went two for four with an RBI for the Phillies, who pounded four Met pitchers for 12 hits and won their fourth in a row.

Atlanta 10, Cincinnati 2--Greg Maddux pitched six shutout innings to run his streak to 15 innings without a run, and Chipper Jones had four hits, including a two-run homer, and drove in three runs at Cincinnati in the Braves’ seventh victory in a row.

It was Jones’ 10th homer of the season, but first batting right-handed.

Maddux (6-1) gave up six singles--one of them off his lower back in the fifth inning--didn’t walk a batter and struck out eight as he lowered his ERA to 1.77.

The Braves’ rotation has given up only three runs in the past 51 innings.

Houston 7, Montreal 4--Shane Reynolds (3-5) pitched six strong innings and the Astros batted around in the first, scoring five runs, in a victory at Montreal.

The first-inning onslaught came off Pedro Martinez (5-3), who drew a warning from umpire Mike Winters after hitting Jeff Bagwell with a fast ball and then gave up three singles in a row on off-speed pitches.

Bagwell later hit the 100th home run of his career.

Florida 7, Colorado 2--Andre Dawson hit a three-run homer and Terry Mathews doubled twice, drove in two runs and pitched 4 2/3 innings of emergency relief for the Marlins in a victory at Denver.

Mathews (2-0) took over when starter Bobby Witt left the game with tightness in his lower back before throwing a pitch in the second inning. Mathews struck out six, but among the four hits off him were solo home runs by Joe Girardi and NL home-run leader Larry Walker.

Chicago 7, San Diego 2--Sammy Sosa went three for five with four RBIs and hit his 13th homer as he and the Cubs broke out of slumps with a victory at San Diego.

Sosa had been six for 47 in his last 13 games, and the Cubs had scored three or fewer runs in 11 of those games.

Chicago ended a three-game losing streak behind Frank Castillo (6-2), who got four first-inning runs and coasted in halting the Padres’ winning streak at four. Castillo gave up nine hits and two runs in five-plus innings.