After Dust Settles, Giants Lose to Cubs

Sammy Sosa homered and had a two-run double as the Chicago Cubs beat the San Francisco Giants, 6-5, Wednesday at San Francisco in a game that featured a bench-clearing melee and the ejections of Giant second baseman Jeff Kent and Cub catcher Tyler Houston.

The battle began in the fourth inning when Kent was hit in the chest by a pitch from Chicago’s Jeremi Gonzalez.

As Kent walked toward first, he and Houston went nose to nose. Home plate umpire Charlie Williams tried to separate them, but Kent ripped off Houston’s face mask and the two wrestled to the ground.

“We were just, what do you call it, male bonding,” Kent said. “No punches were thrown, no cheap shots, no spikes. There was no biting of the ears. There was just a lot of emotion, that’s all there was.”

Houston said the two were exchanging words until Kent provoked the fight by grabbing his mask.

“He and I were in each other’s face. Helmet was on mask at one time, about as close as you can get,” Houston said. “He physically took my mask off my face, so that’s when things got started.”

After Gonzalez beat the Giants, 6-3, at Wrigley Field last Thursday, Kent said he “didn’t think the guy had anything above average” and had much more biting comments about Gonzalez’s slider.

Gonzalez said he was not throwing at Kent. “I don’t really care what he said because everybody has different opinions,” he said. “I was just trying to throw my sinker inside and I didn’t mean to hit him.”

Sosa hit his 26th homer of the season, a solo shot, in the fourth. Dave Clark followed with his fourth homer, the third time this season the Cubs have hit back-to-back homers.

Sosa added a two-run double in the seventh and Kevin Orie had a two-run homer in the sixth.

Pittsburgh 2, Atlanta 1--A new lineup didn’t change things for the Braves as Jon Lieber won for the first time in more than a month, giving up one run in 6 1/3 innings as the Pirates won at Atlanta.

Lieber (7-12) had been 0-4 with a 7.50 earned-run average over his previous six starts. But he gave up only five hits to the Braves for his first win since July 5 against St. Louis. Rich Loiselle pitched a hitless ninth for his 20th save.

“I wanted that one really bad,” Lieber said. “Any time you go up against the Braves, you really want to beat them. That’s true with any team, but especially the Braves. So I suppose we were a little pumped up.”

The Braves, batting .207 in their previous 13 games, shook up the middle of the lineup in hopes of producing more runs. Fred McGriff was dropped to sixth in the batting order, Ryan Klesko moved up to third and Chipper Jones took over the cleanup duties.

Florida 8, Houston 6--Alex Fernandez won his fifth consecutive start and Jeff Conine hit a go-ahead, two-run single in the eighth inning at Houston as the Marlins rallied to win.

Fernandez (15-8), who has not lost since July 18, struck out 10--matching his season high--in six innings. He gave up five runs--three earned--and nine hits.

Back-to-back homers by Derek Bell and Jeff Bagwell had given the Astros a 5-4 lead in the seventh.

But Jose Lima (1-6) walked Bobby Bonilla in the eighth and Darren Daulton doubled. Conine greeted Russ Springer with a single to right, giving him three hits and three RBIs.

Greg Zaun singled, and pinch-hitter Gary Sheffield hit an RBI single off reliever Tom Martin for a 7-5 lead. Pinch-hitter Greg Abbott followed with a run-scoring single, the Marlins’ fifth consecutive hit. Martin then struck out Jim Eisenreich, and Edgar Renteria grounded into an inning-ending double play.

New York 5, St. Louis 4--Pinch-hitter Butch Huskey singled home the go-ahead run in the 10th inning as the Mets overcame two home runs by Mark McGwire to win at St. Louis.

Edgardo Alfonzo walked against Tony Fossas (1-5) leading off the 10th and John Olerud singled him to second. Todd Hundley’s grounder advanced the runners and Huskey grounded a single to left off Curtis King.

Cory Lidle (6-1) pitched a scoreless ninth, and John Franco got the final three outs for his 30th save in 34 chances.

Philadelphia 12, Colorado 8--Mike Lieberthal had four hits, including a three-run homer, and pitcher Mark Leiter had a two-run single to lead the visiting Phillies.

Philadelphia matched a season high with its fourth consecutive victory and 12th in 15 games.

Mickey Morandini added four hits and an RBI for the Phillies and Leiter (8-12) won for the third time in four starts, allowing six runs and nine hits in 5 1/3 innings.

Colorado’s Larry Walker was 0 for four and his average fell to .377, his lowest since the fourth game of the season.

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BESTS OF THE DAY

BATTING

Player: Mark Mcgwire

Team: St. Louis

Performance: 3 for 5, 2 homers, 3 runs, 3 RBIs

Team’s Result: Loss

*

Player: Mike Lieberthal

Team: Philadelphia

Performance: 4 for 5, homer, 3 runs, 3 RBIs

Team’s Result: Win

*

Player: Sammy Sosa

Team: Chicago

Performance: 2 for 5, homer, two-run double

Team’s Result: Win

PITCHING

Player: Mike Morgan

Team: Cincinnati

Performance: 7 innings, 1 hit, 0 runs, 6 strikeouts

Team’s Result: Win

*

Player: Alex Fernandez

Team: Florida

Performance: 7 innings, 9 hits, 3 runs, 10 strikeouts

Team’s Result: Win

*

Player: John Smoltz

Team: Atlanta

Performance: 9 innings, 7 hits, 2 runs, 9 strikeouts

Team’s Result: Loss