Mulholland Rescues Injury-Ravaged Cubs

Perhaps the Chicago Cubs should send Terry Mulholland out as a starter more often.

Making his first start of the season, Mulholland gave the Cubs’ injury-ravaged pitching staff a lift. He gave up seven hits in 6 1/3 innings as the Cubs posted their first shutout of the year with a 2-0 victory over the New York Mets Saturday at Chicago.

“We needed somebody to go out and make a start. It’s pretty simple, really,” said Mulholland, whose first seven appearances this season came in relief.

Sammy Sosa hit his fourth home run and made a rally-snuffing catch in the eighth inning to preserve the victory.

Mulholland (1-0) made his first start since last September for a Cub team with five pitchers currently on the disabled list. And Jon Lieber, today’s scheduled starter, will miss his outing after being hit in the eye by a ball thrown during batting practice. He suffered no serious damage to his eye.

After Mulholland gave up seventh-inning walks to Rickey Henderson and John Olerud, he was replaced by Dan Serafini, who got Bobby Bonilla to hit into a double play--the third turned by the Cubs.

With one out in the eighth, the Mets had runners at first and second when Rey Ordonez hit a long drive to right.

Sosa, staring into a brilliant sun that had caused the Mets to misplay two fly balls Friday, ran back and reached up and snagged the ball. Had it gone over his head, it could have tied the score.

Houston 4, Cincinnati 3--Ken Caminiti said his 1,500th hit was a minor milestone, but it played a major role in the Astros’ victory at Cincinnati.

Caminiti’s two-run single keyed a three-run eighth-inning rally that gave the Astros the victory.

Craig Biggio and Derek Bell led off the eighth with consecutive singles off Danny Graves (1-3). After Jeff Bagwell walked to load the bases, Caminiti singled in two runs to tie it at 3-3. Houston took the lead when Richard Hidalgo grounded into a force play at second.

Caminiti, who spent the past four seasons with San Diego, returned to Houston this season as a free agent and is batting .222.

Scott Elarton (2-0) pitched two innings for the win, giving up one hit and two walks while striking out two. Billy Wagner pitched the ninth for his fifth save.

Reds’ starter Steve Avery gave up one unearned run, three hits and three walks in seven innings.

Philadelphia 6, Montreal 5--Scott Rolen broke an 0-for-15 skid with a rally-starting single, made a great defensive play to preserve a tie and homered to lead off the eighth inning as the Phillies overcame a five-run deficit at Montreal.

Rolen, whose last hit was a monstrous homer at Arizona five days earlier, finished with two hits, and Bobby Abreu went three for four with a homer, double and three RBIs for Philadelphia.

Rolen hit his sixth homer on the second pitch he saw from reliever Bobby Ayala (0-2) as the Phillies completed a comeback from a 5-0 deficit after two innings.

Reliever Mike Grace (1-0) gave up one hit in 1 1/3 innings, and Wayne Gomes worked out of a ninth-inning jam of his own making to earn his first save. He retired Mike Mordecai on a grounder to third baseman Rolen to end the game with runners at first and second.

San Diego 7, Arizona 2--The Padres hit five home runs, one shy of the team record, and ended the Diamondbacks’ five-game winning streak before the largest crowd in San Diego history.

A crowd of 61,674 was boosted by a T-shirt giveaway. The previous mark of 61,247 was set on April 4, opening day this season.

Reggie Sanders hit two of the Padres’ home runs and pitcher Woody Williams, acquired in an off-season trade with Toronto, won his first game with San Diego.

Phil Nevin hit a solo home run, his first of the season, and Greg Myers added a two-run homer, also his first, off Arizona reliever John Frascatore for a 6-2 lead in the sixth inning.

Earlier, Tony Gwynn and Sanders homered off Omar Daal (2-1). Gwynn’s homer extended his hitting streak to 13 games, longest in the major leagues this season. Sanders homered in the eighth off Darren Holmes, giving him four homers this season.

Atlanta 8, Florida 7--The Braves committed four errors, gave up five unearned runs and Greg Maddux had a rare shaky start but it wasn’t enough for the Marlins at Miami.

Maddux (3-0) won despite giving up six runs--two earned--and 10 hits in five innings. He also committed two errors that led to three unearned runs.

Maddux helped key Atlanta’s comeback from a 6-3 deficit with the first triple of his career. He scored on Gerald Williams’ sacrifice fly to cut the lead to 6-5 in the fourth.

Atlanta added two more runs in the fifth when Andruw Jones singled, stole second and scored on Brian Hunter’s RBI double off reliever Brian Edmondson (0-1). After a wild pitch, Hunter scored the go-ahead run on a sacrifice fly by Walt Weiss.

San Francisco 8, Colorado 4--Shawn Estes struggled with his control early before throwing seven strong innings at San Francisco, and Charlie Hayes hit a two-run triple in his first game back from a suspension for the Giants.

Estes (2-1), who walked five batters and gave up four runs in the first three innings, settled down to retire 11 straight batters and pick up the win. He gave up four hits in seven innings with eight strikeouts.

Hayes also scored two runs in his return from a four-game suspension for charging Arizona pitcher Todd Stottlemyre from second base last week.