Cy Youngs Are Old Hat for Houston

The Houston Astros are showing absolutely no respect for the Cy Young Award.

First, it was John Smoltz on opening day.

Then, Greg Maddux on Wednesday night.

The winners of the last five in the National League have lost to the Astros, with Maddux--who won four in a row until Smoltz took the award last season--as their latest victim.

Derek Bell hit a two-run double in a four-run third inning that beat Maddux and the Braves, 4-3, in Houston and sent Atlanta, the National League champion, to its first 0-2 start since 1991.

The Braves also had a 0-2 finish last season. Smoltz lost Game 5 of the World Series to the Yankees, and Maddux lost Game 6.

“You’ve got to be lucky to beat the Braves,” the Astros’ first-year manager, Larry Dierker, said. “They are so hard to play. The tighter the game, the harder they better they play.”

Maddux gave up six hits in the third inning, including five in a row. He gave up 10 hits in six innings, struck out four and walked one.

“They found holes,” Maddux said. “It’s not like they were hitting a lot of line drives. Sometimes the ball just bounces that way.”

Atlanta pulled within a run in the ninth inning on Jeff Blauser’s RBI double off John Hudek. Blauser took third on Keith Lockhart’s groundout. Billy Wagner relieved, and Kenny Lofton lined into a game-ending double play.

Third baseman Bill Spiers caught the ball, then stepped on the base to double up Blauser and give Wagner his second save.

Blauser knew it was over when the ball passed him.

“Once I saw it go by me on a line, my first thought was to try to get back to the bag because I knew it wasn’t going to bounce,” Blauser said. “It was hit too hard. That was absolutely, the worst case scenario in that situation for us. He [Spiers] was moving that way when the ball was hit, so there wasn’t much I could do.”

Astro left-hander Mike Hampton returned to the rotation after off-season arthroscopic surgery on his pitching shoulder. He gave up six hits over seven innings with three strikeouts and one walk.

“Any time you give up seven hits and two runs against the Braves, you are doing a pretty good job,” Hampton said. “I mixed it up and had them guessing here and there but I left some pitches up. But I got some great defense and clutch hitting.”

San Diego 6, New York 5--Chris Gomez’s RBI single with two outs in the 12th inning gave the Padres the win in San Diego.

Ken Caminiti drew a leadoff walk from losing pitcher Ricardo Jordan and moved up on Archi Cianfrocco’s pinch-hit single. Both runners advanced on a passed ball, and Caminiti scored the tying run on Wally Joyner’s sacrifice fly to make the score 5-5.

One out later, Gomez singled to left field off reliever Toby Borland.

Sean Bergman recorded one out for the victory.

John Olerud twice gave the Mets a lead they could not hold, first with a two-run homer in the sixth inning and then an RBI single in the 12th.

The Padres had rallied to tie the score with a run in the ninth inning off John Franco.

Rickey Henderson drew a leadoff walk and was sacrificed to second before Tony Gwynn singled to left field.

Cincinnati 5, Colorado 3--Deion Sanders, who had two hits on opening day, doubled that in Game 2 of his return from the NFL and Reggie Sanders, who had tripled on opening day, went one base better in the Reds’ victory in Cincinnati.

The Reds have outscored Colorado, 7-0, in the first inning of their two victories to start the season and have torn asunder the Rockies’ quest to become road warriors after a season in which they were 28-53 away from home.

Deion Sanders stole his third base of the season in addition to his four hits and also scored in the first inning when Reggie Sanders hit a three-run homer.

Florida 4, Chicago 3--Al Leiter won his 50th game when he and three relievers combined on a five-hitter at Miami, where the Marlins beat Chicago and ran their record to 2-0 for the first time in the franchise’s five-year history.

Robb Nen, who struggled throughout spring training, pitched a perfect ninth for the save.

Florida pitchers have held the Cubs to eight hits over the season’s first two games and, in each, held a 4-0 lead.

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BESTS OF THE DAY

BATTING

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Player Team Performance Result Henry Rodriguez Montreal Double, triple, homer, 2 RBIs Win Deion Sanders Cincinnati 4 hits, 1 steal, 1 RBI, 1 run scored Win Raul Mondesi Dodgers 3 for 4, 4 RBIs, 3-run homer Win

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PITCHING

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Player Team Performance Jeff Juden Montreal 7 innings, 2 hits in first start since ’95 Hideo Nomo Dodgers 7 innings, 4 hits, 1 run, 8 strikeouts Mike Hampton Houston 7 innings, 7 hits, 2 runs

Player Result Jeff Juden Win Hideo Nomo Win Mike Hampton Win

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