Mabry Hits for Cycle, but Vander Wal Steals Thunder

With one swing, Colorado pinch-hitter John Vander Wal relegated the biggest night of John Mabry’s career to trivia and turned Dennis Eckersley’s visage to something resembling the storm clouds overhead Saturday night.

Vander Wal’s three-run homer finished a five-run ninth inning and beat Eckersley and the St. Louis Cardinals, 9-8, at Denver.

Mabry hit for the cycle, singling in the second inning, doubling in the fourth, tripling in the fifth and hitting a homer in the seventh. He became the first player in the majors to hit for the cycle this season, and the 212th in history. It was the 15th time a Cardinal player has completed the cycle, and the first since Ray Lankford on Sept. 15, 1991.

Cardinal Manager Tony La Russa said losing in the face of Mabry’s hitting was “a shame. We should be celebrating it.”

Instead, St. Louis was moaning about what might have been and Eckersley, when he calmed down, was dealing with what had happened in a game in which eight home runs were hit.

In the ninth, Eckersley (0-4) walked Eric Young and argued with home plate umpire Larry Vanover. Ellis Burks then homered to cut the St. Louis lead to 8-6.

Dante Bichette and Larry Walker, who both homered earlier, singled and, one out later, Vander Wal homered for the victory.

“You can’t go back to that,” Eckersley said of the dispute with Vanover. “We had a four-run lead. I hadn’t given up a home run all year. The ball Burks hit just took off. It was like Wrigley Field with the wind blowing out. I tried to get the ball down to Vander Wal, but I had trouble with location. He tried to yank it, and I gave him a pitch to yank.”

And took some of the luster off Mabry’s evening.

Montreal 3, San Diego 2--Ugueth Urbina worked six strong innings in his longest outing and the Expos ended a season-high three-game losing streak with a victory at San Diego.

The game was stopped for seven minutes in the bottom of seventh inning after fans threw their giveaway license-plate frames onto the field.

After an original two-minute delay, home plate umpire Bob Davidson waved the Expos off the field when fans continued to litter.

Urbina (2-0) gave up two runs and five hits for Montreal. He was the beneficiary of two unearned runs in the fifth inning off Fernando Valenzuela (2-2), who struck out eight in 6 1/3 innings, his most strikeouts since recording eight for the Dodgers on Aug. 2, 1990, at San Francisco.

Pittsburgh 2, Houston 1--Jay Bell hustled home from second base on an infield single by Jason Kendall in the 11th inning to give the Pirates a victory at Houston.

Bell drew a leadoff walk from Anthony Young (1-2) and stole second base with two outs. Kendall hit a high chopper to shortstop Orlando Miller, who fielded the ball near second base. Kendall beat Miller’s throw for a hit, and Bell scored ahead of first baseman Jeff Bagwell’s throw.

New York 14, San Francisco 5--Todd Hundley hit two three-run homers, one from each side of the plate, and drove in a seven runs for the Mets at San Francisco.

Hundley, who has 11 home runs, hit one as a left-handed hitter in the fourth inning off Jose Bautista and another from the right side in the ninth off Doug Creek. He also was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded during a five-run third.

Atlanta 2, Cincinnati 1--Ryan Klesko used the long and short of it to lead the Braves, hitting a 431-foot home run to tie the game in the fourth inning and blooping a two-out single to score Chipper Jones with the winning run in the eighth at Atlanta.

Florida 3, Chicago 2--Gary Sheffield and Charles Johnson hit home runs for John Burkett (3-5) and the Marlins in a victory at Chicago.

Florida outhit the Cubs, 13-3, and won for the 10th time in 12 games.