Padres, Shy of Players, Still Handle Marlins

How well are the San Diego Padres playing? So well that they can win without the top two hitters in the National League.

So well that they can win without their reserve first baseman, who would have been in the lineup in place of one of those hitters.

So well that, with a depleted roster, they can win with a pitcher pinch-hitting for another pitcher.

So well that reserve catcher Brian Johnson became the Padres’ latest hero Tuesday, driving in three runs in a 7-2 victory over the Florida Marlins in Miami.

“That’s why you have a 25-man roster,” Manager Bruce Bochy said. “That’s why you have role players.”

You have them to replace Tony Gwynn, who is batting .472 but has an injured heel; and to replace first baseman Wally Joyner, batting .455 but with a rib injury.

And to replace Scott Livingstone, Joyner’s backup but away in Dallas to be with his wife, who is expecting the couple’s first child soon.

With his bench depleted, Bochy called on pitcher Andy Ashby to pinch-hit for Sean Bergman in the eighth inning with a 6-2 lead. Ashby laid down a sacrifice bunt.

“We’ve hit the injury bug early, but we’re hanging in there,” said Johnson, who has eight RBIs in 19 at-bats. “The good thing is that those guys should be back soon.”

Bergman (2-1) had failed to reach the fifth inning in his past two starts but Tuesday he threw only 88 pitches, 60 for strikes. He gave up five hits and two runs.

Johnson had a two-run double and an RBI grounder. He played in place of Brad Ausmus, who got the day off after a night game.

The Padres’ 9-4 road record is the best in the major leagues.

“Their two best guys are out of the lineup, and they’re still playing good,” said Marlin starter Chris Hammond (1-3), who was knocked out in the third inning. “It’s like their whole team has confidence. That’s the sign of a good team.”

New York 8, Cincinnati 6--Chris Jones, who had entered the game as a defensive replacement in the eighth inning, hit a two-run homer in the 10th for the Mets in New York.

Jones, who led the NL in pinch-hitting with a .400 average last season, followed Rey Ordonez’s one-out single by hitting a 1-and-1 pitch from Jeff Shaw (2-2) over the wall in left for his first homer. Doug Henry (1-0), the fifth Met pitcher, pitched the 10th for the victory.

Montreal 12, St. Louis 11--Pinch-hitter Moises Alou homered with one out in the ninth inning at Montreal, giving the Expos their fifth victory in a row.

Alou, kept out of the starting lineup for the second consecutive game because of a hamstring injury, hit an 0-and-2 pitch from T.J. Mathews (1-1) over the left-field wall for his fifth home run this season.

Former Dodger Henry Rodriguez hit his eighth homer for the Expos.

Philadelphia 6, Pittsburgh 2--Kevin Stocker, the only shortstop in the National League who has yet to make an error, helped out with his bat at Philadelphia, singling in two runs in a three-run sixth inning off Pittsburgh’s Paul Wagner (3-1), who had entered the game with an NL-leading 0.77 earned-run average.

The Phillies’ Russ Springer (1-2) pitched a scoreless sixth inning to get his first National League victory, and Ken Ryan struck out three in three hitless innings for his first NL save.

Houston 8, San Francisco 4--Jeff Bagwell had a two-run double and Derrick May added a two-run single for the Astros, who scored seven runs in the third inning in a victory at San Francisco.

Brian Hunter had an RBI single, Derek Bell hit a sacrifice fly and Sean Berry added an RBI double for Houston, which sent 12 batters to the plate in the third.

Colorado 4, Chicago 3--Dante Bichette singled home the go-ahead run in the fifth inning for the Rockies, who finished a 4-1 trip by dealing Chicago its fourth loss in a row.

Bichette’s two-out single scored Jeff Reed to give Colorado a 2-1 lead, and the Rockies added a run in the seventh inning on Quinton McCracken’s single and another in the eighth on Reed’s single.