Lee Makes His Mark for Diamondbacks

Travis Lee spent batting practice and part of the game admiring Mark McGwire.

Then the Arizona rookie first baseman went out and played like McGwire.

Lee homered in consecutive innings and drove in a team-record five runs as the Arizona Diamondbacks rallied to defeat the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-4, Saturday at Phoenix.

The performance earned him his first standing ovation.

“It was great, a curtain call and all,” he said. “I didn’t know whether to go out there or not. So, you know, I asked some of the guys, ‘Can I go out there?’ and they said, ‘Yeah, go ahead.’ I kind of got goosebumps all over.”

Trailing, 4-3, after Brian Jordan’s two-run homer in the eighth, the Diamondbacks scored four runs in the bottom of the inning on Lee’s three-run homer and Matt Williams’ solo shot, both off Jeff Brantley (0-3).

Lee, who had a two-run homer off Curtis King in the seventh, has 13 home runs and 39 runs batted in, both tops among National League rookies.

Russ Springer (4-3) got the victory despite giving up Jordan’s homer. Gregg Olson pitched the ninth for his eighth save.

McGwire, who hit his major league-leading 31st homer Friday night, was one for two with two walks, raising his league-leading walk total to 70.

Atlanta 9, Montreal 7--Javier Lopez and Andruw Jones hit back-to-back homers in the second and third innings, powering the Braves to a 9-7 victory at Atlanta.

Lopez had a pair of two-run homers, his 14th and 15th of the season, off Mike Johnson (0-2). Jones hit his 11th and 12th homers off Johnson, the third time he has homered twice in a game this season.

The Braves lead the National League with 102 homers and are second in the majors to Seattle, which has 109.

Johnson, recalled from Triple-A Ottawa on Friday, gave up eight hits and seven runs in three innings.

After giving up four runs in the first inning, Brave starter Tom Glavine (9-2) faced the minimum in the second, third and six innings and was saved by an inning-ending double play in the fourth.

Glavine, 5-0 in his last seven starts and 12-0 against Montreal since 1993, gave up 11 hits and six runs--five earned --in 7 2/3 innings.

New York 7, Florida 4--Butch Huskey’s three-run homer highlighted a seven-run third inning that sent Rick Reed and the Mets to victory at Miami.

Reed (8-3) gave up seven hits and struck out eight in 8 1/3 innings, winning for the seventh time in his last eight starts.

John Franco closed for his 15th save. It was Franco’s 401st game for the Mets, tying the team record for a pitcher set by Tom Seaver.

Huskey hit his ninth home run of the season and his fifth in his last 10 games.

Milwaukee 8, Pittsburgh 1--Jeff Juden pitched a five-hitter and barely missed the first shutout of his major league career and Jeromy Burnitz hit two of the Brewers’ three homers at Pittsburgh.

Backup catcher Bobby Hughes added a two-run double off Jason Schmidt (8-3) and helped shut down the Pirates’ offense by twice throwing out runners trying to steal.

Juden (6-5) came within two outs of recording his first shutout in 119 games and 54 starts since breaking into the majors with Houston in 1991.

Kevin Young hit a sacrifice fly with one out in the ninth after Tony Womack had led off with a triple.

Cincinnati 7, Houston 4--Dmitri Young hit a three-run home run in the fifth inning and Bret Boone followed with another homer, rallying the Reds at Cincinnati.

The Reds won for only the third time in 11 games by scoring four times with two outs in the fifth off Shane Reynolds (7-4), who came into the game on his best streak of the season but wound up with yet another loss at Cinergy Field.

Reynolds, who had won his last five decisions, gave up three homers as he fell to 1-8 for his career against the Reds.

Scott Klingenbeck (1-1) gave up four runs on five hits in 5 2/3 innings as he got his first National League victory.

Chicago 10, Philadelphia 8--The Cubs rallied from a five-run deficit, aided by four Philadelphia errors, to win in the 10th inning at Philadelphia.

The top three hitters in the Cub lineup--Brant Brown, Mickey Morandini and Sammy Sosa--went a combined eight for 14 with eight runs scored and five RBIs.

Sosa, who hit his 21st homer of the season and knocked in four runs, has 12 home runs and 29 RBIs in his last 14 games.

Morandini, playing against the team that traded him to the Cubs for Doug Glanville in the off-season, went four for five and scored four runs.