Maddux Goes Distance to Beat Brewers, 6-1

A couple of first-inning singles certainly wouldn’t be enough for the Milwaukee Brewers to rattle Greg Maddux.

Maddux gave up hits on his first two pitches before recovering to pitch a six-hitter Monday night for his second consecutive complete game as the Atlanta Braves defeated the Brewers, 6-1, at Atlanta.

“It was no big deal. I just thought maybe I could get a ground ball, a double play. Instead I got a line-drive out to right,” said Maddux, who retired Jeff Cirillo on the liner and Marquis Grissom on a bouncer and struck out Geoff Jenkins.

After that, Maddux (11-6) put it in cruise control.

The right-hander, coming off an eight-inning complete-game 2-0 loss to the Florida Marlins in his last start, pitched his first nine-inning complete game since Aug. 6, when he beat the Cincinnati Reds. 5-0.

Said Brewer Manager Phil Garner: “We helped him out early by going down in order after the two leadoff hits. We gave him a little confidence. We get a couple of hits, and he then calmly gets out of the inning.”

The Braves, who opened a six-game homestand after a 5-7 trip, learned during the game that they would be without catcher Javy Lopez for the rest of the season. Lopez will undergo surgery on his right knee.

Since the All-Star break, the Braves have lost 4 1/2 games of their five-game lead in the National League East to the New York Mets.

New York 7, Pittsburgh 5--Rick Reed won his sixth consecutive decision and Benny Agbayani and Robin Ventura each drove in three runs at New York to help the Mets to their sixth consecutive victory.

Reed (9-3), who hasn’t lost in 10 starts since June 4 against the New York Yankees, gave up two-run homers to Kevin Young and Brant Brown. Reed gave up eight hits in 5 2/3 innings.

Armando Benitez walked four consecutive batters with one out in the ninth to cut the Mets’ lead to 7-5. He threw 19 of 24 pitches for balls. Turk Wendell came in and got Abraham Nunez to pop out and Brian Giles to ground out for his third save.

Philadelphia 9, Florida 1--Kevin Jordan had three hits and drove in three runs at Philadelphia, and Robert Person won his fourth consecutive start as the Phillies kept pace in the National League East race.

Jordan, playing for injured third baseman Scott Rolen, needed only a homer to hit for the cycle and is batting .448 in his last seven starts. Bobby Abreu also had three hits, and Rico Brogna hit his 12th homer and drove in three runs.

The Phillies, who split a four-game series with the Braves over the weekend, got another strong outing from Person (5-2). The right-hander, used mostly as a reliever before this season, gave up one run and seven hits in eight innings with three walks and eight strikeouts.

Montreal 6, Chicago 1--Brad Fullmer went three for four with a homer and three runs batted in at Montreal and Dan Smith pitched seven effective innings for his first win in eight starts.

Smith (2-5) gave up one run and eight hits to win for the first time since his major league debut against the Boston Red Sox on June 8.

Houston 8, Colorado 5--Matt Mieske’s second homer of the game keyed a four-run, ninth-inning rally at Denver that carried the Astros to their 12th win in 14 games.

Mieske, who hit a solo homer in the fifth, led off the ninth against Dave Veres (2-3) with his fourth homer of the season, tying the score, 5-5. Veres had converted 11 consecutive save chances before giving up Mieske’s homer.

It got much worse quickly for Veres and the Rockies. Derek Bell singled to second and one out later Tim Bogar walked. Daryle Ward hit an RBI single to right, giving the Astros a 6-5 lead.

Veres then threw a wild pitch that brought home Bogar, and Craig Biggio, who went four for four, hit an RBI double to end the scoring. The Astros (60-40) have their best record after 100 games.

“We got timely hits and contributions from everybody,” Biggio said. “We don’t have a lot of guys that can hit home runs, but we do have a lot of guys who can drive the ball.”

Brian Williams (1-1) pitched a perfect eighth for the win and Billy Wagner pitched a perfect ninth for his 26th save in 28 opportunities.

Mieske went four for five with three RBIs. It was the second multihomer game of his career.