Farnsworth Effort Worthy of Veteran

Kyle Farnsworth’s friends and family sat behind the Chicago Cubs’ dugout, ready to cheer his first start in the big leagues. The Florida Marlins sat in the other dugout, eager to face the 23-year-old rookie.

Farnsworth sat at his locker, wanting to cry.

“I was getting teary-eyed before the game,” he said. “Everything I dreamed of was finally happening.”

But instead of losing his composure, Farnsworth won his major league debut. He pitched six-plus innings, providing a boost for the Cubs’ injury-ravaged staff, in a 5-2 victory Thursday at Miami.

“When I got out to the mound, I was confused,” Farnsworth said. “Everything was floating. But I had a good feeling. I was just pitching like I did in triple-A. If I showed nerves, the other team might notice it. I wanted to stay relaxed and helped our team win.”

Farnsworth limited the Marlins to six hits and departed with a 4-2 lead. The 6-foot-4 right-hander was recalled from triple-A Iowa because the Cubs have four starting pitchers on the disabled list.

“Overall it was a great experience,” he said. “It’s a bigger crowd, bigger stadium, bigger everything.”

Twenty of Farnsworth’s friends and relatives drove down from his hometown in Roswell, Ga., to attend the game. He avoided eye contact with them but admitted hearing his niece a couple of times in the crowd of 12,484.

Farnsworth struck out five and walked one. The Marlins clocked his fastball at 92-95 mph.

“He was poised,” Marlin Manager John Boles said. “He had good composure and was around the plate. I was hoping he would have the jitters and be a little wild, but he wasn’t.”

Atlanta 8, Pittsburgh 1--Bret Boone and Andruw Jones each drove in three runs at Atlanta to make things easy for Greg Maddux, who is 4-0 for the first time in his career.

With the temperature dipping into the mid-40s and the wind whipping from right field, Maddux scattered 10 hits over eight innings. The four-time Cy Young Award winner hasn’t been his usual dominating self through five starts, giving up 43 hits in 33 innings.

But his teammates have provided plenty of support, scoring 47 runs in the four wins.

Houston 5, Arizona 2--Mike Hampton pitched eight strong innings and also hit a two-run double for the Astros at Houston.

Hampton (2-1) gave up four hits, struck out seven and did not walk a batter. The Astros won three times in the four-game series.

Billy Wagner struck out the side in the ninth for his seventh save. The previous night, he gave up five runs without getting an out in a loss to the Diamondbacks.

Hampton helped himself with a go-ahead double in the second. With two out, Tony Eusebio and Tim Bogar drew walks and Hampton hit a line drive into the left-center-field gap.

San Francisco 6, Montreal 5--The Giants won at Montreal despite making six errors in a game for the first time since 1977.

J.T. Snow tied a career high with four hits and drove in four runs, sending the Expos to their seventh consecutive loss.

The Giants’ misplays led to three unearned runs. Montreal fell to 2-11 at Olympic Stadium, the worst start at home in the franchise’s 31-year history.

Colorado 6, St. Louis 2--Hours after he hit three homers and tied a team record with eight runs batted in, Larry Walker had two hits and drove in three runs for the Rockies at St. Louis.

Walker’s 11-RBI, two-game total is two shy of the major league record shared by Nate Colbert and Mark Whiten--both occurring in doubleheaders.

Whiten had four homers and 12 RBIs for the Cardinals in the second game at Cincinnati Sept. 7, 1993, and had one RBI in the first game. Colbert had five homers on Aug. 5, 1972, in a sweep of the Braves.

Jim Bottomley holds the major league record of 12 RBIs in a game, but did not drive in a run in either the game before or the game after.

Darryl Kile (2-2) gave up eight hits and two runs for his 21st complete game and first win since opening day.

New York 8, San Diego 5--Rey Ordonez tied a career high with three RBIs and John Olerud homered for the second consecutive game at New York.

The Mets rallied from a 4-0 deficit for their second consecutive comeback victory. On Wednesday night, Mike Piazza’s two-run homer in the ninth gave New York a 4-3 victory.

Olerud’s fifth homer of the season was a two-run shot against Woody Williams in the fifth, cutting the Mets’ deficit to 5-4.

In the sixth, Ordonez drove in the tying run with a single against Brian Boehringer (0-1), and pinch-hitter Robin Ventura hit a sacrifice fly to score Roger Cedeno.

Dennis Cook (4-0) pitched a scoreless sixth in relief of starter Bobby Jones, who got into trouble early.