Helton Hits for Cycle in Colorado’s Victory

Todd Helton woke up Saturday thinking he would spend the day on the bench. Good thing he didn’t.

Helton played through throbbing pain in his left wrist and became the third player in Colorado history to hit for the cycle, getting it in his only four at-bats to lead the Rockies to a 10-2 victory over the Florida Marlins at Denver.

“To be very honest with you, I was positive I wasn’t going to play,” Helton said. “The trainers worked some magic because when I woke up this morning, there was no way I was going to play.”

Helton, 13 for 26 with four home runs and 17 runs batted in his last seven games, injured the wrist when Florida catcher Jorge Fabregas stepped on it during a rundown Friday night.

But Helton shook off the injury and doubled down the right-field line in the second inning, singled to right in the fourth, hit a solo homer to left in the fifth and tripled into the right-field gap to lead off the seventh.

“I knew what I had to get,” Helton said. “I was going to run until they tagged me. Once I hit the ball in the gap, I just took off and put my head down and didn’t stop until I got to third.”

He joins Dante Bichette and Neifi Perez as other Colorado players to hit for the cycle. All three have come at Coors Field. San Francisco’s Jeff Kent accomplished the feat earlier this season, and Helton was the 243rd player in major league history to do it.

“He’s Mickey Mantle right now,” Florida starter Alex Fernandez (2-4) said. “He’s seeing the ball really good. Either that, or he’s guessing real good, but he’s doing something right. I’ll take him right now for our team.”

Larry Walker wasn’t bad, either, adding a homer and five RBIs for the Rockies (32-32), who reached the .500 mark for the first time since they were 6-6 on April 22.

Arizona 7, Atlanta 3--With 94 games left to play, Jay Bell tied his career high with his 21st home run as the Diamondbacks defeated mistake-prone Atlanta at Phoenix and ended the Braves’ four-game winning streak.

Bell also had an RBI single and scored three runs in the second of the three-game series between the leaders in the NL West and East. Arizona’s Luis Gonzalez hit his 13th home run and Omar Daal (7-4) improved to 4-0 in his last six starts.

The Braves committed three errors, two by third baseman Chipper Jones and one by catcher Javy Lopez. Errors by Lopez in the fourth and Jones in the fifth led to unearned runs.

Lopez hit his seventh homer off Daal in the second inning, and the Braves added two more in the third on Jones’ RBI single and Brian Jordan’s RBI groundout, but Daal shut Atlanta down on one hit the next three innings.

Houston 5, Montreal 2--Mike Hampton gave up two runs in seven innings and had two hits to lead the Astros past the Expos at the Astrodome.

Hampton (9-2) gave up seven hits and two walks to win his fourth consecutive start. He is 4-0 with 3.62 earned-run average in June.

Hampton, who was two for two with a run scored, tripled to center to lead off the fifth. He scored the Astros’ fourth run when Montreal third baseman Michael Barrett misplayed Craig Biggio’s grounder for an error.

Billy Wagner pitched the ninth for his 17th save.

Milwaukee 10, Cincinnati 1--Jose Valentin homered during the Brewers’ seven-run first inning and Dave Nilsson later hit his 100th career home run as they overpowered the Reds at Cincinnati.

The Brewers took advantage of another first-inning collapse by Reds starter Ron Villone (1-2), matching their season-high with seven runs in an inning.

Villone, who walked four of the first eight batters he faced in his last start, retired only one of the seven he pitched to Saturday. His ERA in three starts is 10.80.

San Francisco 11, Chicago 5--Marvin Benard had a career-high five RBIs, hitting a two-run home run and a three-run double, as the Giants defeated the Cubs at San Francisco.

Charlie Hayes and Doug Mirabelli added two RBIs each and Barry Bonds had an RBI single for the Giants, who won their fourth in a row. The Cubs, who left the bases loaded twice, have lost nine of 10.

The Cubs did score three runs in the sixth without a hit. Two Giants errors put runners on first and second with two outs, and then San Francisco pitchers walked four consecutive batters. Jeff Blauser, Manny Alexander and Mark Grace all had RBI walks.

St. Louis 7, New York 6--Mark McGwire ended a 32 at-bat home run drought with a three-run shot in the first inning as the Cardinals defeated the Mets at St. Louis.

McGwire had been five for 30 with one RBI in the first eight games of a 13-game homestand before victimizing Jason Isringhausen (1-2) for his 20th homer on a 3-2 pitch, a towering drive over the center-field wall. He’s exactly one month off his record 70-homer pace of last season, when he hit No. 20 on May 19 and had 33 homers on June 19.

Mike Piazza extended his hitting streak to a career-best 22 games with a two-run homer in the fifth for the Mets, who have lost only three of their last 13.