Benes Overcomes Jitters to Defeat Padres

Andy Benes had a simple explanation for his rocky start Monday night.

“I guess I was nervous going up against my old team, that’s all I can figure,” Benes said after overcoming Greg Vaughn’s first National League homer to lead the St. Louis Cardinals over the San Diego Padres, 8-2, at St. Louis.

“They have a lot of new guys and I guess maybe I was trying to do too much early in the game,” Benes said.

Benes, who won his eighth consecutive decision, retired the first two batters. But Ken Caminiti singled and Vaughn broke an 0-for-12 slump, homering to give the Padres a 2-0 lead.

“I settled down after that and made some good pitches,” Benes said. “It really helped that we scored a lot of runs.”

Benes (11-8) gave up two runs and four hits in 6 2/3 innings. He became the first St. Louis pitcher to win eight straight since John Tudor won 11 in a row in 1985.

Danny Jackson, making his first appearance since breaking his right ankle last Aug. 11, pitched a perfect ninth.

Chicago 7, New York 3--Mark Grace and Sammy Sosa hit back-to-back homers and Steve Trachsel reached 10 victories for the first time in his career at Chicago.

Trachsel (10-6) gave up four hits in 7 1/3 innings, including Alvaro Espinoza’s first homer as a Met and Todd Hundley’s 34th, to win his third consecutive decision. He also doubled in the go-ahead run in the second inning.

Grace led off the third with only his fourth homer of the season and first since May 11. Sosa then followed with his NL-leading 38th, a liner to left off Paul Wilson (4-7) that made the score 4-1. It was Sosa’s sixth homer this season against the Mets.

Philadelphia 3, Pittsburgh 0--Curt Schilling pitched a four-hitter for his first shutout in three years, and Benito Santiago hit his career-high 19th homer at Philadelphia.

Schilling (5-4), who started the season on the disabled list after arthroscopic surgery on his right shoulder last August, struck out a season-high 10 and walked two in his seventh career shutout, his first since a five-hitter against the Dodgers on April 23, 1993.

Denny Neagle (12-5) gave up all three runs and nine hits in 6 1/3 innings. The Phillies, who won their third straight, are the only National League team Neagle hasn’t beaten.

Florida 16, Colorado 9--Gary Sheffield drove in four runs with a pair of homers and Devon White had four hits at Denver.

Sheffield had his third multi-homer game this season, the 10th in his career, raising his season total to 31.

White doubled three times to tie a team record and had three RBIs, Jeff Conine hit his 20th homer and Terry Pendleton drove in three runs as the Marlins out-hit Colorado, 22-11, and won for only the fourth time in 11 games.

Vinny Castilla, Ellis Burks, Eric Young and Eric Anthony homered for the Rockies, who had won their previous three games. Anthony drove in three runs.

Cincinnati 4, San Francisco 3--Barry Larkin hit his 19th home run and Joe Oliver hit a go-ahead two-run double at San Francisco as the Reds sent the Giants to their sixth consecutive loss.

Roger Salkeld (6-3), who left after five innings trailing, 3-2, got the victory when the Reds rallied for two runs in the sixth off William VanLandingham (6-12). Salkeld, pitching on three days’ rest for the first time, struck out four and walked one.

Jeff Brantley pitched a perfect ninth for his 30th save in 34 chances.

Cincinnati went ahead in the first when Hal Morris singled and Larkin followed with a 400-foot homer into the left-field bleachers.