Gaetti’s Homer in Ninth Beats Padres

Todd Stottlemyre marveled. Joey Hamilton just shrugged because he had seen it too many times.

Stottlemyre, the Cardinal starting pitcher Wednesday night, and Hamilton, his San Diego counterpart, matched scoreless innings through eight in St. Louis, then left it to other pitchers to finish.

Hamilton’s replacement, Doug Bochtler, obliged Gary Gaetti with a high ninth-inning fastball that Gaetti hit for his 16th homer of the season and a 1-0 Cardinal victory.

“When you try to hit a home run you don’t always hit the ball hard,” Gaetti said. “I was just looking to hit the ball hard. When you go up there there’s a lot of guessing, but you’ve still got to hit it. I think it was a fastball. I was just trying to protect the plate.”

Stottlemyre praised his defense for getting him through eight shutout innings.

“Not only is this the best defensive game I’ve ever been a part of, this is the best defensive game I’ve ever seen,” he said. “I really didn’t do all that much.”

Center fielder Ray Lankford, right fielder Brian Jordan, shortstop Ozzie Smith and third baseman Gaetti made outstanding plays for Stottlemyre.

For Hamilton, it was business as usual.

“I’m mentally and physically exhausted,” he said after being on the short end of his third 1-0 game this season. He hasn’t won since July 3.

“I thought we would win the game after I got out of the eighth inning. I feel bad for the team,” he said. “You expect to get a win when you get this kind of starting pitching.”

Atlanta 14, Philadelphia 1--John Smoltz, a right-hander pitching with a slight fracture in his left wrist, won his major league-leading 18th game, getting help from six Phillie errors in a game shortened to eight innings because of rain in Atlanta.

Four of those errors were committed by Todd Zeile, who tied a major league record for first basemen and became the first National League first baseman to make four errors in a game in 91 years.

Smoltz, expected to miss possibly two starts after being hit by a line drive Friday at Dodger Stadium, didn’t miss any. He left after five innings with the Braves leading, 13-1.

San Francisco 9, Cincinnati 2--After being walked three times, Barry Bonds made the Reds pay, hitting a grand slam in the sixth inning to lead the Giants, who broke a seven-game losing streak with a victory in San Francisco.

Mark Gardner (10-4) pitched a seven-hitter for the Giants and their first complete game in more than two months. He had pitched the last one, on June 2.

San Francisco overcame an early 2-1 deficit with a three-run third inning off Cincinnati starter Kevin Jarvins (4-5) that included an RBI double by Glenallen Hill and run-scoring singles by Rick Wilkins and Rich Aurilia.

Colorado 12, Florida 5--Behind 3-0 in the first inning and a batter away from being chased from the game, Kevin Ritz settled down, pitched his way out of a jam at Denver and became Colorado’s first 13-game winner.

Ritz (13-7) gave up eight hits in 6 2/3 innings to become the first pitcher in the Rockies’ four-year history to win 13 games in a season. He also became the winningest pitcher in Rocky history with 29 victories.

Andres Galarraga and Quinton McCracken homered and drove in three runs each to back Ritz.

New York 11, Chicago 7--Rey Ordonez cleared the bases with a triple to highlight a five-run ninth inning for the Mets, who won in Chicago.

New York, which rallied from five runs down to tie it, 6-6, in the sixth inning, overcame three two-run Cub homers, including Sammy Sosa’s league-leading 39th.

Montreal 13, Houston 5--Darrin Fletcher hit two two-run homers and Mark Leiter ended a personal five-game losing streak in the Expo victory at Montreal.

The Expos have won eight of their last nine games.