Padres Beat Pirates on Ninth-Inning Rally

Chris Gomez’s RBI single in the ninth inning carried San Diego to an 8-7 victory over Pittsburgh on Wednesday night that kept the Padres percentage points behind the Dodgers in the NL West Division race.

The Padres were losing, 7-6, when they found out the Dodgers had beaten Cincinnati, 3-2.

But they tied the score, 7-7, in the eighth on Wally Joyner’s RBI single, then won it with their ninth-inning rally.

Greg Vaughn singled with one out against reliever John Ericks (3-4) and stole second. One out later, Gomez singled to left and Vaughn scored ahead of left-fielder Al Martin’s throw to the plate.

Colorado 6, Atlanta 5--Denny Neagle remained winless with Atlanta as Andres Galarraga homered for the second consecutive game to lead the Rockies over the Braves at Denver.

Neagle (14-8), who is 3-4 with a 6.97 career earned-run average against Colorado, has given up 12 earned runs and lost two of his three starts since being traded from Pittsburgh to Atlanta on Aug. 28. The Braves haven’t been much better, going 4-8 in that stretch.

The Rockies, meanwhile, won their fourth in a row behind Jamey Wright (4-2), who overcame a 34-pitch first inning to win for the first time in six starts. He gave up three runs in seven innings with five walks and six strikeouts.

Bill Swift pitched a perfect ninth for his first save since Sept. 19, 1992, when he was with San Francisco.

San Francisco 4, St. Louis 2--Barry Bonds hit two two-run homers, the second in the second inning, as the Giants won at San Francisco.

“If you keep playing with fire, you’ll get burned,” Bonds said of Cardinal Manager Tony La Russa’s decision to pitch to him in the eighth. “His ego is too big.”

With the score tied and Bill Mueller at first after a leadoff walk, Bonds hit a full-count pitch against Alan Benes (13-9) just over the right-field fence for his 39th homer.

San Francisco ended a five-game losing streak and handed the Cardinals only their second loss in 12 games.

Philadelphia 10, Houston 8--Mickey Morandini had four hits and knocked in two runs for the Phillies at Houston.

The Astros remained 2 1/2 games behind St. Louis in the Central Division.

Montreal 2, Chicago 1--Moises Alou finished an otherwise horrible road trip by hitting a two-run homer in the eighth, giving the Expos a victory at Chicago.

Alou was three for 27 on the Expos’ seven-game trip, including one for 11 in the three games at Chicago, before pulling a pitch by Terry Adams (2-6) over the left-center field wall and out of Wrigley Field.

New York 3, Florida 1--Jason Isringhausen, in his second start since coming off the disabled list Sept. 6, scattered four hits in 6 2/3 innings at New York.