ROUNDUP : Braves Open Door to Diamondbacks

When leading a good team late in the game, never give it a second chance.

The Atlanta Braves found that out Sunday.

Brave catcher Eddie Perez’s error allowed Kelly Stinnett to reach on a strikeout and led to three Arizona runs in the ninth inning as the Arizona Diamondbacks defeated the Braves, 7-5, at Atlanta.

With two out, nobody on and the Braves leading, 5-4, Stinnett struck out on a pitch in the dirt against John Rocker (4-5). Perez retrieved the ball in front of the plate and had what should have been an easy throw to first. He threw the ball over first baseman Randall Simon’s head into right field, allowing Stinnett to reach second.

“I run all the time,” said Stinnett, the Arizona catcher. “That’s the way I was taught. You always run. It can be a tough play for a catcher. There’s not a catcher that hasn’t thrown it away before.”

Dante Powell ran for Stinnett and Tony Womack followed with a single to left, scoring Powell. Womack took second on the throw to the plate. Rocker intentionally walked Jay Bell and the runners advanced on a double steal. Luis Gonzalez singled, driving in Womack and Bell to give Arizona a 7-5 lead.

Diamondback left-hander Randy Johnson struck out 13 in seven innings and, despite giving up two homers to Chipper Jones, avoided the loss when his teammates rallied. Johnson, who has 328 strikeouts, has struck out 10 or more 21 times this season. He has five scheduled starts left and is 55 strikeouts away from tying Nolan Ryan’s single-season record set in 1973.

The loss was only the third in 16 games for Atlanta, which leads the New York Mets by 2 1/2 games in the NL East. Arizona moved six games ahead of San Francisco in the NL West.

Cincinnati 9, Philadelphia 7--A night after setting the league record for home runs in a game with nine, the Reds set the major league mark for homers in consecutive games as they hit five more at Philadelphia.

Jeffrey Hammonds hit two, and the Reds got one each from Greg Vaughn, Eddie Taubensee and Dmitri Young. All homered for the second consecutive day, as the Reds moved past the 1939 Yankees and 1961 San Francisco Giants for the two-game record.

New York 6, Colorado 2--Darryl Hamilton hit a grand slam against his former team and Masato Yoshii struck out nine in six innings for the Mets at New York.

John Franco, making his first appearance since July 2, pitched a scoreless eighth inning for the Mets, who remained four games ahead of Cincinnati in the wild-card race. Franco missed more than two months because of a strained tendon in his pitching hand.

St. Louis 13, Milwaukee 9--Craig Paquette and Adam Kennedy combined for seven hits and seven runs batted in, and the Cardinals scored four runs in the 10th inning to win at Milwaukee.

Paquette went three for five with four RBIs, while Kennedy went four for six with three RBIs. The Cardinals led, 7-0, in the fourth, but the Brewers fought back, and finally tied the score in the ninth on Geoff Jenkins’ three-run homer.

Houston 6, Montreal 2--Craig Biggio singled in the go-ahead run in the seventh as the Astros completed a three-game sweep at Montreal.

Houston has won four of five games to remain 2 1/2 games ahead of Cincinnati in the NL Central.

Pittsburgh 8, San Francisco 4--Brian Giles hit his 35th home run and drove in four runs and Joe Oliver hit his first homer in nearly a year, leading the Pirates at Pittsburgh and ending San Francisco’s eight-game winning streak.

Giles has 10 homers in 18 games. His 35 homers are the most by a Pirate since Willie Stargell led the NL with 44 in 1973.