Maddux Sharp Despite Injury

Greg Maddux has a chipped bone in his pitching wrist? The Cincinnati Reds sure couldn’t tell.

In his first start since suffering a wrist injury, the right-hander pitched seven shutout innings Tuesday night for his seventh consecutive victory, leading the Atlanta Braves to an 8-2 victory at Cincinnati.

This wasn’t the work of a pitcher with a bad wrist, was it?

“No way,” said Sean Casey, who had three of the Reds’ six hits against Maddux. “I didn’t think twice about that. I can’t believe his wrist was broken.”

Maddux (17-6) insisted the wrist didn’t bother him when he threw--he stuck by his story when asked again and again--but his teammates suspected it was a little tougher than he let on.

“He’s always had a high threshold of pain,” said Chipper Jones, who hit his career-best 35th home run. “You expected him to go out and give it all he had. You didn’t expect him to have shutout stuff. He kept them at bay all night.”

Chipper Jones and Eddie Perez, who has caught all of Maddux’s 28 starts, each hit two-run homers as the Braves padded their lead over the New York Mets to 3 1/2 games in the National League East.

Maddux didn’t look rusty or hurt in his first appearance since Aug. 21, when he chipped the bone while diving for a pop foul by John Vander Wal. He sat out only one start--the first time he had to sit out a turn since April 1997.

Houston 6, New York 2--Ken Caminiti, whose eighth-inning error at Houston allowed the Mets to tie the score, hit a grand slam moments later to help Jose Lima earn his league-leading 18th victory.

Caminiti’s throwing error allowed Edgardo Alfonzo to reach first just before John Olerud’s 16th home run tied the score at 2-2. In the bottom of the eighth, Turk Wendell (3-2) walked Craig Biggio with one out and Matt Mieske doubled. After an intentional walk to Jeff Bagwell, Caminiti hit his fifth grand slam.

Montreal 2, Arizona 1--Geoff Blum’s leadoff home run in the eighth inning spoiled Randy Johnson’s 14-strikeout performance at Phoenix.

Montreal’s Mike Thurman (6-10) gave up five hits in seven strong innings, matching his career high with seven strikeouts and walking one. It’s the seventh time the Diamondbacks scored one or fewer runs for Johnson. He is 0-7 in those games.

Johnson (14-9) lost for the first time in six outings, but raised his major league-leading strikeout total to 315. With six starts remaining, he is 68 short of Nolan Ryan’s strikeout record of 383.

San Francisco 8, Philadelphia 1--Barry Bonds hit two homers for the second consecutive night, giving him 14 in 16 games, and Kirk Rueter pitched seven strong innings at San Francisco.

Bonds’ 29th homer of the season was a two-run shot in the third. He led off the seventh with his 30th, off the foul pole in right field.

San Diego 7, Chicago 3--Andy Ashby pitched a five-hitter at San Diego as the Padres won despite Sammy Sosa’s major league-leading 55th homer.

St. Louis 8, Florida 1--Larry Luebbers threw a five-hitter at St. Louis in the first complete game of his career as the Cardinals ended a seven-game losing streak.