Reds Stay Road Hot, Move Into First Place

There is no doubt who the best road team in baseball is.

The Cincinnati Reds, powered by a home run from Michael Tucker in the first inning and a three-run sixth, defeated the Houston Astros, 5-2, Sunday at the Astrodome to complete a perfect 7-0 trip, improve to a league-best 26-10 on the road, get a sweep in Houston for the first time in four years and, most importantly, nudge into first place in the NL Central by one percentage point.

“We’re clicking on all cylinders right now,” said Cincinnati’s Sean Casey, who went 13 for 27 (.481) in the seven games. “Our starting pitching has been good, we’ve been playing great defense and everybody’s hitting.”

Despite the sweep at Houston, which followed a three-game sweep at NL West leading Arizona, the Reds need to improve on a 15-21 home mark to stay in first.

“It’s nice to be there,” Red Manager Jack McKeon said. “We’re all delighted. But I’m looking down the road and I’d like to be there in October when we come back here.”

Chicago 13, Philadelphia 7--Sammy Sosa tied for the major league lead with his 28th home run as the Cubs outslugged the Phillies to avoid being swept at home.

Jeff Blauser drove in four runs with a solo homer and a tiebreaking three-run triple for the Cubs, who won for only the fourth time in their last 17 games. Henry Rodriguez and Glenallen Hill also homered for Chicago.

With one out in the third and the game tied at 2, Sosa hit the first pitch from rookie Randy Wolf over the left-field bleachers onto Waveland Avenue. It was his second homer in as many games, 301st of his career and tied Tampa Bay’s Jose Canseco for the league lead.

Pittsburgh 6, Milwaukee 5--Ed Sprague hit a three-run home run in the sixth inning as the Pirates won at Milwaukee.

Jeromy Burnitz hit an eighth-inning grand slam off reliever Scott Sauerbeck that cut into Pittsburgh’s 6-1 lead, but the Brewers couldn’t get the tying run across against Sauerbeck and Brad Clontz.

Florida 4, Montreal 3--Dave Berg hit a tiebreaking two-run double in the eighth and the Marlins withstood a late rally to defeat the Expos at Montreal.

With the score tied at 1-1 and runners on first and second, Berg hit a two-out double to left-center and Bruce Aven followed with a run-scoring single to make it 4-1.

The Expos closed to 4-3 in the ninth, but with runners on first and third, Matt Mantei got Orlando Cabrera on a fly to right.

Atlanta 1, New York 0--Greg Maddux gave up only two hits and struck out six in eight innings to help the Braves win at Atlanta.

The Braves took the final two games of the series against the Mets, expanding their lead to four games in the NL East.

Atlanta has won nine of 12 games. The Mets had won five in a row before losing two straight to the Braves.

Arizona 3, St. Louis 2--Travis Lee tripled to lead off the bottom of the 10th and scored on pinch-hitter Andy Fox’s single as the Diamondbacks recovered from a blown save in the ninth to win at Phoenix.

Armando Reynoso limited the Cardinals to one run on four hits through eight innings. But Byung-Hyun Kim, the 20-year-old South Korean sidearm reliever, couldn’t hold the lead in the ninth, the 13th blown save in 27 opportunities for Arizona’s shaky bullpen.