NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Phillies Continue Dominance of Braves

If the Atlanta Braves could figure out how to beat the Philadelphia Phillies, there might be a hot race in the National League East.

After losing all four games at home to the Phillies in early May, the Braves hoped to make themselves at home in Philadelphia in a four-game series beginning Friday night.

Things were looking good when seven-game winner John Smoltz took a 1-0 lead into the seventh. Only a sixth-inning single by Len Dykstra marred a brilliant performance. But two-out disaster struck in the seventh.

Dykstra, Mickey Morandini, Tony Longmire and Dave Hollins hit consecutive singles to give the Phillies a 3-1 victory, a 5-0 record against the Braves and a four-game lead in the division.

“I’ll take my chances with giving up five singles in every game,” said Smoltz. “But this time I didn’t get the win.”

The late rally gave Tyler Green (8-4) his fourth victory in a row. Heathcliff Slocumb struck out the side in the ninth to get his league-leading 20th save and assure the Phillies of first place on the Fourth of July.

San Francisco 7, San Diego 6--Barry Bonds hit a three-run home run with one out in the ninth inning at San Francisco to give the Giants a dramatic victory.

Bonds also homered in the second inning.

The Padres had rallied for four runs in the sixth inning to take a 6-4 lead. It stood up until Jeff Reed singled and John Patterson walked with one out.

Trevor Hoffman relieved and Bonds hit his second pitch for a 400-foot home run, his 13th home run of the season.

Bonds went four for five with five RBIs and three runs, raising his average to .309.

St. Louis 3, Chicago 1--Tom Urbani (2-3) hit his first home run and won for the first time in two months at Chicago, where the slumping Cubs went a little berserk.

While losing for the 20th time in 29 June games, the Cubs also lost center fielder Brian McRae and Manager Jim Riggleman in a heated argument in the seventh inning. With McRae at bat, the potential tying runs on base and two out, the two Cubs took exception to a couple of strike calls by umpire Brian Gorman.

McRae may be in a bit of trouble. He jumped in Gorman’s face, screaming and ranting. Even worse, crew chief Bruce Froemming said he’ll file a report that McRae bumped Gorman. Ozzie Timmons finished the at-bat for McRae and grounded out to end the rally.

Urbani’s home run, in his 52nd at-bat, gave the Cardinals the two-run cushion.

Miami 10, Montreal 1--Jeff Conine led the Marlins to their best hitting effort of the season in a romp at Miami.

Conine had four of the Marlins’ 19 hits, two of them home runs, and drove in four runs to make it easy for Chris Hammond to improve to 5-2.

The Marlins clobbered rookie Carlos Perez (7-2) for nine hits and five runs in 2 2/3 innings in his first start since being knocked unconscious by a foul ball while sitting in the dugout last Sunday.

New York 7, Cincinnati 6--The Mets won their third in a row for the first time this season when Rico Brogna’s two-run home run in the seventh at New York finished off their comeback.

Before putting an end to the Reds’ three-game winning streak, the Mets had to overcome 4-1 and 5-2 deficits.

Pittsburgh 12, Houston 9--Dave Clark had four of the Pirates’ season-high 17 hits at Houston and, after scoring eight runs in two innings, they barely hung on to end the Astros’ four-game winning streak.