Leiter Handles Jitters and Cubs

Starting pitcher Mark Leiter, so nervous his legs felt numb, continually worked out of trouble while yielding one run in six innings as the San Francisco Giants won their home opener, 4-1, over the Chicago Cubs on Friday.

Leiter (1-1), who gave up eight hits, walked two and hit a batter, left nine runners on base--including the bases loaded in the second and third innings.

“I got out there in front of a big crowd in the home opener and I got butterflies, and jitters in my legs,” Leiter said. “It was like my first at-bat in the bigs. I couldn’t feel my legs.”

The Cubs opened the scoring on pitcher Jaime Navarro’s infield single with the bases loaded in the second, but Leiter got Brian McRae on a grounder to second base to end the inning. Chicago loaded the bases with one out in the third, but Scott Servais grounded into a force at the plate and Jose Hernandez struck out.

Mark Carreon and Glenallen Hill had a run-scoring singles in the fourth for the Giants. Barry Bonds capped the Giants’ victory with a solo homer in the eighth.

Atlanta 5, San Diego 3--Rookie Jason Schmidt won his second consecutive start, and the Braves broke out of an offensive slump to defeat the Padres at San Diego.

Schmidt (2-0) gave up three runs--two earned--and six hits in 6 2/3 innings, struck out four and walked two. Mark Wohlers pitched the ninth, getting Tony Gwynn to hit a game-ending groundout with two men on.

Atlanta had scored only six runs in its previous four games, three of them losses, but Ryan Klesko hit his fifth homer in the second inning, a solo shot, and the Braves took a 5-2 lead with four runs in the third off Sean Bergman (1-1).

Colorado 6, New York 5--Larry Walker and Andres Galarraga homered on consecutive pitches during a three-run sixth inning, powering the Rockies at Denver.

Stifled for five innings by Mets’ starter Mark Clark (0-2), the Rockies put together a two-out rally highlighted by Walker’s two-run homer, which gave Colorado a 3-2 lead.

Galarraga hit the next pitch 420 feet over the center-field wall, and the bullpen hung on to give Marvin Freeman (1-1) his first victory over the Mets since Sept. 21, 1986.

Houston 10, Cincinnati 8--Derek Bell tripled home two runs with two outs in the 10th inning and continued home on a throwing error, giving the Astros the victory at Cincinnati.

Craig Biggio started the winning rally with a two-out walk off Marcus Moore (0-1), Jeff Bagwell singled and Bell tripled to the gap in right-center. Second baseman Jeff Branson’s relay throw deflected into the dugout for an error that sent Bell home and gave Todd Jones (2-0) the victory.

St. Louis 6, Philadelphia 1--Ray Lankford homered twice and the Cardinals moved two games over .500 for the first time in two seasons, defeating the Phillies at St. Louis.

Tom Urbani (1-0) gave up one run and three hits in 5 1/3 innings. Cory Bailey, T.J. Mathews, Rick Honeycutt and Dennis Eckersley finished the combined four-hitter.

Lankford homered in the first inning for St. Louis, followed by John Mabry’s run-scoring double in the fourth. Then in the sixth after the Phillies pulled to 2-1, Lankford homered in a four-run eighth off Toby Borland.

Montreal 13, Pittsburgh 3--Al Martin and Jacob Brumfield dropped fly balls as three Pittsburgh errors led to a six-run fourth inning, and the Expos got the victory at Pittsburgh.

Moises Alou was three for five with four runs batted in and Kirk Rueter (1-1) pitched one-hit ball for six innings as the Expos won their seventh in 10 games.