Kent’s Shot Helps Giants Close Gap

Jeff Kent hit a three-run homer and Orel Hershiser pitched seven strong innings Monday night in leading the San Francisco Giants past the Pittsburgh Pirates, 8-1, at San Francisco.

The Giants moved within 3 1/2 games of the idle New York Mets in the National League wild-card race with their fourth victory in five games.

Kent has 30 home runs and 122 runs batted in, making him the only the second second baseman in major league history other than Rogers Hornsby to have consecutive 120-RBI seasons. He did so despite sitting out 24 games because of a knee injury.

Hershiser (10-10) had been 0-2 in six starts since his last victory, a 3-2 win over the Florida Marlins on Aug. 16. He gave up one run and six hits, walked three and struck out five.

Pittsburgh’s Jason Kendall set the NL record for steals by a catcher with his 26th, breaking the mark of 25 set by New York’s John Stearns in 1978.

Cincinnati 8, Philadelphia 5--Tony Tarasco’s pinch-hit grand slam in the seventh inning rallied the Reds over the Phillies at Cincinnati.

“I didn’t know if it would get up, but it stayed up,” said Tarasco.

It was his first major league grand slam, but he couldn’t help comparing it to the apparent home run that was denied Mark McGwire on Sunday.

“It would have been nice if a little kid reached over and caught it,” Tarasco said. “But they probably would have called it a double.”

The start of the game was delayed by rain for 2 hours, 23 minutes. Once it began, Scott Rolen hit two home runs and a double as the Phillies took a 5-4 lead.

Tarasco’s grand slam was his first in the majors, and the first pinch-hit grand slam for the Reds since Lenny Harris did it Aug. 31, 1996, against the Marlins.