Vaughn, Caminiti Have a Blast for Padres

Greg Vaughn completed old-home week resoundingly.

Vaughn hit his 43rd home run and Ken Caminiti homered and drove in four runs to lead the San Diego Padres to a 7-2 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday night at Milwaukee.

“Without a doubt, power helps,” said Vaughn, who homered in each of the three games of the series. “As a team we believe if we stay close, we’ve got a chance to win.”

Sterling Hitchcock (8-5) gave up eight hits in eight innings, striking out five and walking two.

“Hitch had trouble early, but he battled and kept us right there and gave us a chance to win,” Vaughn said.

Steve Woodard (9-9) was tagged for five runs and nine hits in six innings, losing his fourth consecutive decision.

San Diego scored twice in the sixth inning to take a 3-2 lead.

Vaughn, who hit 169 homers from 1989-96 for Milwaukee before being traded to the Padres on July 31, 1996, tied it, 2-2, with a leadoff home run, a 414-foot shot to center field.

Wally Joyner then singled and moved to second on Mark Sweeney’s groundout to first. Joyner scored on Greg Myers’ one-out single.

“I never had a problem hitting here,” said Vaughn, whose 455-foot home run Sunday was the longest of the season at County Stadium. “It’s tough to hit them out. I’ve never seen them go out the way they’re going out right now. When I was there, the wind was always blowing in and balls weren’t traveling. It’s very rare. You might see two or three home runs to center all year and I’ve hit two this year. This is strange.”

Arizona 9, New York 5--Jay Bell doubled, tripled and homered as the Diamondbacks tripped up the Mets for the second consecutive day at New York.

With the Mets trailing, 4-1, in the ninth, Mel Rojas gave up five runs and three hits, raising his earned-run average to 5.53. The Mets then came back with four runs in the bottom half.

Bobby Valentine, the Mets’ manager, was ejected in the eighth inning by third base umpire Bill Hohn for arguing a checked-swing call on Brian McRae.

San Francisco 7, Florida 4--Joe Carter capped a comeback with a two-run homer in the eighth inning, and the Giants defeated the Marlins at Miami to complete the first season sweep of an opponent in franchise history. San Francisco finished 9-0 against the Marlins, outscoring them, 61-29.

St. Louis 5, Pittsburgh 5--The game at Pittsburgh was rained out in the middle of the seventh inning Monday afternoon with the score tied. The result goes down as a tie, and all statistics count.

The game will be made up when the Pirates play at St. Louis from Sept. 14-16.

John Mabry, who filled in at first base as Mark McGwire took the day off, drove in two runs with a double and a single despite being booed by a crowd of 28,435 that came to see McGwire.

Houston 12, Chicago 3--While Sammy Sosa didn’t hit a home run for the Chicago Cubs, Moises Alou, Craig Biggio and Carl Everett did for the Astros as they completed a three-game sweep at Chicago.

Alou’s homer was his 38th of the season and ninth in 18 games.

Sosa, who homered twice Sunday, was two for four with a pair of singles and remained at 51 homers, two behind Mark McGwire in the chase of Roger Maris’ record of 61.

Colorado 3, Philadelphia 1--Todd Helton hit a home run and Bobby Jones ended a three-game losing streak with six strong innings at Philadelphia.

Jones (6-7) gave up five hits en route to his first victory since August 3 at Pittsburgh. The left-hander walked three and struck out six.