NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Castilla’s Homer Is the Topper

Vinny Castilla hit a two-run homer with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning Sunday to lift the Colorado Rockies to a 4-2 victory over the Chicago Cubs in front of 48,076 at Denver.

The victory put the Rockies in a first-place tie with the Dodgers in the National League West.

Castilla’s homer came after Brian McRae led off the ninth with his 10th homer of the season to tie the game, 2-2.

Andres Galarraga opened the bottom of the ninth with a double to left. Turk Wendell (2-1) intentionally walked Larry Walker and Galarraga was caught stealing third before Castilla hit his 28th homer of the season, a shot into the left-field stands.

Curtis Leskanic (5-1) pitched two-thirds of an inning to pick up the victory. Colorado starter Bryan Rekar went 8 1/3 innings, yielding two runs on three hits with eight strikeouts.

Atlanta 1, St. Louis 0--Greg Maddux returned to Cy Young form with a two-hitter as the Braves beat the Cardinals in the fastest game in the major leagues this season.

Maddux (13-2), who has won the last three NL Cy Young Awards, won for the first time since Aug. 4. He struck out nine and walked none while lowering his league-leading ERA to 1.85.

Maddux needed only 88 pitches--66 for strikes--to tie Pete Schourek of Cincinnati for the league lead in victories.

The game at St. Louis was played in 1 hour, 50 minutes. On June 24, San Diego beat Colorado 2-0 in 1:55.

San Diego 3, Montreal 0--Willie Blair struck out a career-high nine batters and Scott Livingstone homered and knocked in two runs as the streaking Padres defeated the Expos at Montreal.

Blair (6-2) scattered five hits, walked three in eight innings and escaped bases-loaded jams in the first and sixth innings. Trevor Hoffman pitched a perfect ninth for his 24th save.

In four starts since going into the rotation after the trade of Andy Benes, Blair is 3-1 with a 1.00 earned-run average.

Livingstone had a run-scoring groundout in the fourth and a solo homer in the seventh off Pedro Martinez (11-8) as San Diego won for a 10th time in 13 games.

Tony Gwynn went two for four to raise his NL-leading average to .367.

Cincinnati 11, Houston 4--Ron Gant hit a grand slam and four Cincinnati players had three hits apiece at Riverfront Stadium as the Reds added an exclamation point to their season-long domination of the Astros.

The Reds have won all 10 games against Houston, outscoring the Astros, 61-25. The victories are the difference in the NL Central, where the Reds have opened a season-high 10-game lead.

Cincinnati knocked slumping Greg Swindell (7-8) out of the game in the third inning, then let Mark Portugal (7-8) dig in to beat the Astros for the first time.

Barry Larkin, Reggie Sanders, Darren Lewis and Mark Lewis each had three hits, and Gant hit his 26th homer of the season and second career grand slam, a shot to left off Todd Jones in the fifth that put the Reds ahead, 11-1.

Pittsburgh 3, Florida 2--Kevin Young hit his third homer in as many games and had three runs batted in at Three Rivers Stadium to lead the Pirates to their fourth consecutive victory.

Young’s home run came in the fourth after Carlos Garcia had singled off John Burkett (10-11). Young’s second-inning RBI single followed a single by Nelson Liriano and a double by Garcia.

Steve Parris (6-4) won his second consecutive start.

Philadelphia 8, San Francisco 7--Gregg Jefferies’ high-chop single in front of the plate scored former Angel Kevin Flora with the winning run in the 10th inning at Philadelphia.

Flora, who also homered, doubled to open the inning, Mickey Morandini singled him to third and Kevin Stocker walked to load the bases with none out.

Jefferies’ RBI single came off loser Jose Bautista (2-8), who was unable to field the ball. The Phillies got 19 earned runs and 18 hits off Giant relievers in sweeping the three-game series.

Winner Heathcliff Slocumb (3-5) pitched a scoreless 10th.

Matt Williams, making his first start since breaking his right foot June 3, hit the first pitch of the second inning into the upper deck in left field for his 14th homer of the season.