Giants Rally Behind Carter’s Home Run

Joe Carter hit the first pinch home run of his career, a three-run drive that sparked a seven-run sixth inning as the San Francisco Giants rallied to beat the Montreal Expos, 9-7, on Tuesday night.

Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent also homered for San Francisco, which is two games behind Chicago and one behind New York in the NL wild-card race.

Kent added a sacrifice fly in the eighth for his 100th RBI. He is the first Giants right-handed batter to have consecutive 100-RBI seasons since Willie Mays (1959-1966), who was in the ballpark Tuesday.

Montreal starter Miguel Batista left after five innings with a 5-1 lead but Kirk Bullinger, Steve Kline and Shayne Bennett allowed seven runs and six hits in the sixth.

John Johnstone (3-5) pitched two innings in relief of Danny Darwin to get the win. Robb Nen got three outs for his 34th save.

Consecutive one-out singles by Ellis Burks, J.T. Snow, Brent Mayne and Marvin Benard cut the lead to 5-3 against Bullinger.

Carter, batting for Stan Javier, homered off Kline (2-6) for a 6-5 lead, the 392nd homer of his career and first in 40 at-bats as a pinch hitter.