NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Vander Wal’s a Hit in Rockies’ Victory

Pinch-hitter John Vander Wal is back swinging at first-pitch fastballs and winging his way toward a record.

Vander Wal ignited a seven-run seventh inning with a two-run triple and Andres Galarraga followed with a grand slam, rallying the Colorado Rockies to a 10-5 victory over Cincinnati on Friday night at Colorado.

“I just like to look for something hard early,” Vander Wal said. “I look for something early in the count I can do something with. [Hector] Carrasco is a fastball pitcher, and that’s what I like. I don’t like to go deep in the count, and I don’t like guys who throw nothing but breaking pitches.”

Colorado, which has won four of its last five games, remained .001 ahead of Los Angeles for first place in the NL West.

The Rockies were trailing, 4-3, when Vinny Castilla led off the seventh against reliever Carrasco (2-6) with a single. He was sacrificed to second, and Jason Bates walked. Vander Wal, batting for Curtis Leskanic (6-2), then tripled to left-center.

It was Vander Wal’s 23rd pinch hit this season, leaving him two shy of the major league record of 25 set by Montreal’s Jose Morales in 1976.

Atlanta 6, Florida 5--Mike Devereaux hit a tie-breaking single in the eighth and Rafael Belliard added a two-run single at Miami as the Braves lowered their magic number to four.

The NL East-leading Braves are 17 games ahead of Philadelphia, which lost, 12-3, to Houston on Friday night.

With the game tied at 3 in the eighth, Fred McGriff doubled off Yorkis Perez (1-6) and scored on Devereaux’s single.

Greg McMichael (7-1) got the win, and Mark Wohlers pitched the ninth for his 22nd save.

Houston 12, Philadelphia 3--Mike Hampton gave up six hits in seven innings at Philadelphia as the Astros tied an NL record with four sacrifice flies.

Hampton (9-6), who hadn’t won in four starts since Aug. 12, limited the Phillies to two runs while striking out four and walking three.

Tony Eusebio went 3 for 3 with three RBIs.

New York 5, Montreal 0--Bobby Jones pitched six innings of no-hit ball and finished with a three-hitter at Montreal.

The no-hit bid, which would have been the first in the Mets’ 33-year history, ended when Sean Berry opened the seventh with a clean single up the middle. Darrin Fletcher followed by grounding into a double play.

Jones (8-8), who was sidelined with a bruised right index finger from Aug. 18-29, pitched his second major-league shutout and his fourth complete games in 59 starts.

St. Louis 5, San Diego 2--Donovan Osborne won his first game in more than two years, and Ray Lankford extended his hitting streak to 10 games with an upper-deck home run at St. Louis.

Osborne, who spent last season on the disabled list after having surgery on his pitching shoulder, pitched eight innings, yielding two runs on four hits while striking out four and walking one.

San Francisco 7, Chicago 3--Sergio Valdez, lifted after a brawl the last time he faced the Cubs, pitched seven strong innings and Mark Carreon homered in the first inning at Chicago.

In Valdez’s Aug. 13 start against the Cubs, he plunked Shawon Dunston with a pitch and Dunston rushed the mound. Valdez got the win that day but also got a cut under his left eye and was removed two batters after the fight broke up.

On Friday, Dunston began serving a four-game suspension for starting that melee.