Astacio Roughed Up, but Rockies Win

Pedro Astacio had a rocky debut for the Colorado Rockies.

Astacio, making his first start since he was acquired from the Dodgers for second baseman Eric Young on Monday, gave up three runs on nine hits in 6 2/3 innings, but the Rockies defeated the Houston Astros, 6-3, Saturday at Houston.

Astacio, who struck out eight and walked two, didn’t get a decision.

Billy Wagner, who gave up a 10th-inning game-winning home run to Vinny Castilla the last time he faced him, did it again Saturday.

Castilla hit a three-run homer with two outs in the top of the ninth.

“He threw me all fastballs and I wasn’t looking for anything but fastballs from him,” Castilla said. “He’s got one of the best fastballs in the league and if you look for the curve you don’t have time to react to the fastball. He threw me a couple of fastballs in the dirt and another one inside and then he got one up high.”

Castilla launched the 1-2 fastball deep into the mezzanine seats to score Neifi Perez and Larry Walker.

Houston catcher Brad Ausmus visited the mound before Wagner delivered the final pitch to Castilla.

“Sometimes you wonder what the conversation was about,” Colorado Manager Don Baylor said. “Sometimes you run into pride, guys have macho things about their fastball. You never think it could happen again.”

Castilla said he thought about the April 28 at-bat against Wagner. The pitcher said he didn’t recall it but acknowledged Ausmus tried to get him to throw one breaking pitch to Castilla.

“Brad called a curveball, I said no, I figure why take a chance with a guy on third base,” Wagner said. “You can’t take a chance with a pitch like that regardless of how good your curve is.

“If I face Vinny one hundred times I’d throw that pitch every time.”

Perez led off the ninth with a walk. Reliever John Hudek (0-2) walked Dante Bichette on four pitches, but got Andres Galarraga to ground into a double play, moving Perez to third. Wagner relieved and walked pinch-hitter Walker to set the stage for Castilla.

“What’s the chance of a guy hitting two in a row like that?” Houston Manager Larry Dierker said of his decision to replace Hudek with Wagner. “I guess they’re pretty good.”

Steve Reed (4-5) earned the victory in relief of Astacio with 1 1/3 innings of one-hit ball. Jerry Dipoto pitched a perfect ninth for his 10th save.

Atlanta 10, Cincinnati 3--Denny Neagle set a career best with his 17th victory as the Braves extended their winning streak to four at Atlanta.

Neagle (17-3) tied teammate Greg Maddux and Houston’s Darryl Kile for the NL lead in victories, winning for the fifth time in six decisions. Neagle, 16-9 last year with Pittsburgh and Atlanta, gave up two runs and six hits in seven innings. He has given up 10 runs over 60 1/3 innings in his last eight starts for a 1.49 earned-run average.

Kenny Lofton homered in the first, hit a run-scoring single in the fifth and an RBI groundout in the seventh, helping the Braves improve to 9-1 against the Reds.

Andruw Jones also homered for Atlanta. Joe Oliver homered for the Reds, who lost their third consecutive game.

Montreal 9, Chicago 5--Pinch-hitter Andy Stankiewicz homered for the first time since 1994, and Mark Grudzielanek and Mike Lansing followed with solo shots in the ninth inning as the Expos won at Chicago.

Darrin Fletcher homered twice for the Expos, who got three consecutive homers for the first time since June 29, 1993, when Moises Alou, Marquis Grissom and Larry Walker connected in the seventh against Pittsburgh.

Florida 3, St. Louis 0--Kevin Brown pitched a five-hitter and Craig Counsell drove in two runs as the Marlins won at Miami.

Brown (12-8) struck out three and walked three en route to his fifth complete game and second shutout of the season, the 12th shutout of his career.

New York 9, San Diego 5--A day after rescuing the Mets with a game-tying, two-run homer in the ninth inning, Todd Hundley hit his fourth career grand slam at New York.

Edgardo Alfonzo, Butch Huskey and Brian McRae also hit home runs as the Mets won for only the fifth time in 14 games.

Ken Caminiti, Steve Finley and Craig Shipley homered for San Diego, with Caminiti driving in three runs.

Hundley’s seventh-inning slam off Sean Bergman was his 28th homer and put the Mets ahead, 8-3. It followed singles by McRae and Alfonzo, and a walk to John Olerud.

Tony Gwynn, in an 11-for-44 slump coming in, went had three hits to raise his average to .380.

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BESTS OF THE DAY

BATTING

Player: Kenny Lofton

Team: Atlanta

Performance: 2 for 5, home run, 3 RBIs

Team’s Result: Win

*

Player: Todd Hundley

Team: New York

Performance: 2 for 3, grand slam, 4 RBIs

Team’s Result: Win

*

Player: Vinny Castilla

Team: Colorado

Performance: 3 for 5, home run, 3 RBIs

Team’s Result: Win

*

Player: Darrin Fletcher

Team: Montreal

Performance: Two home runs, 4 RBIs

Team’s Result: Win

*

PITCHING

Player: Kevin Brown

Team: Florida

Performance: 9 innings, 5 hits, 3 strikeouts

Team’s Result: Win

*

Player: Denny Neagle

Team: Atlanta

Performance: 7 innings, 6 hits, 5 strikeouts, 17th victory

Team’s Result: Win