Rockies Show Off Mexico’s Finest

If Sunday’s game between the Colorado Rockies and the San Diego Padres was televised in Mexico, viewers got their money’s worth.

Mexican-born Vinny Castilla homered for the fourth time in four games to help countryman Armando Reynoso and Colorado defeat Mexico’s best-known major leaguer Fernando Valenzuela, 8-4, at Denver.

Reynoso (5-6) outdueled Valenzuela (5-7), who battled for 4 2/3 innings before Ellis Burks homered in a three-run fifth. Eric Young also had a homer among his three hits as the Rockies earned their fifth consecutive victory.

“Obviously, this was not a good series for us,” said Padre Manager Bruce Bochy. “It was two tough ones earlier and today we were probably lucky to be in the game. We somehow escaped some early jams there, but it finally caught up with us.”

Houston 7-3, New York 5-10--Pete Harnisch won his first game since June 1, and Edgardo Alfonzo drove in three runs as the Mets earned a split with the Astros at New York.

Jeff Bagwell hit a go-ahead home run in the 11th inning of the first game, and the Astros went on to win, 7-5. Derrick May homered twice for Houston.

Harnisch (5-6) gave up three runs and seven hits in 6 2/3 innings to earn the victory in the second game.

Atlanta 15, Florida 10--Ryan Klesko hit a pair of homers and drove in six runs, and the Braves scored five times in the eighth inning at Atlanta.

The score was tied, 10-10, in the eighth when Marquis Grissom singled off Yorkis Perez (2-3). A bases-loaded walk by Javy Lopez from Terry Mathews put the Braves ahead, Jermaine Dye had a run-scoring grounder and Klesko hit his 24th home run.

Montreal 5, Philadelphia 2--Sherman Obando hit two home runs for the first time and the Expos avoided a four-game sweep with the victory at Montreal.

Mike Lansing’s tie-breaking single in the seventh inning put the Expos ahead, 3-2. F.P. Santangelo hit a two-run homer off Ron Blazier in the eighth.

Cincinnati 7, Pittsburgh 6--Reggie Sanders hit two home runs and pitcher Dave Burba homered for the first time, powering the Reds past the Pirates at Cincinnati.

Burba (4-9) pitched into the sixth. Mark Johnson’s two-run homer off Jeff Shaw cut the lead to 7-6 in the eighth, but Jeff Brantley got the last three outs for his 24th save.

Eduardo Perez’s homer in the seventh made him and his father, Tony, the fifth father-son combination to homer at Riverfront Stadium. The others are the Bonds (Barry and Bobby), the Boones (Bret and Bob), the Bells (David and Buddy) and the Kessingers (Keith and Don).

St. Louis 7, Chicago 6--Brian Jordan, the NL’s leading hitter with runners in scoring position, singled four times and drove in two runs as the Cardinals won at Chicago.

Jordan is batting .443 with runners in scoring position, including a single that sparked a four-run sixth inning.

Ray Lankford homered and had two RBIs for the Cardinals, helping Alan Benes (9-5) win despite giving up four runs in five shaky innings.