Giants Outlast Undermanned Marlins

The Florida Marlins won’t use it as an excuse. The San Francisco Giants won’t let them, either.

With eight players sitting out as part of a work stoppage by Miami’s Cuban-American community, the Marlins and Giants needed 11 innings and nearly all of their players Tuesday night.

Armando Rios doubled home the winning run to give the Giants a 6-4 victory at Miami.

“It was a tough loss,” said Florida Manager John Boles, whose team was without six players. “I hate to lose. These guys fought their hearts out. Those guys were spent. We had guys cramping up. We gave them everything we had.

“But there’s no excuses.”

Florida third baseman Mike Lowell, pitchers Alex Fernandez and Vladimir Nunez--all of Cuban descent--sat out, protesting Elian Gonzalez’s removal from the home of his relatives. Dominican teammates Antonio Alfonseca, Jesus Sanchez and Danny Bautista joined them in a show of support.

Some Giant players had little sympathy for the Marlins’ predicament.

“It’s not our fault. If you’re not willing to go out there with a 25-man roster, there’s nothing we can do,” center fielder Marvin Benard said.

Arizona 10, Philadelphia 2--Randy Johnson struck out 11 in 6 2/3 innings at Philadelphia as the Diamondbacks ended a three-game losing streak.

Johnson (5-0), pitching on a 49-degree night, gave up two runs and three hits. He recorded the 129th double-digit strikeout game of his career and his fourth in five starts this season.

Kelly Stinnett had his second two-homer game of the season and drove in four runs. Travis Lee and Steve Finley also homered for the Diamondbacks.

St. Louis 7, Milwaukee 2--Mark McGwire homered for the third consecutive game to lead the Cardinals at St. Louis.

McGwire, who has sat out nine games because of a sore back, homered in the first, one out after a homer by Edgar Renteria against Brewer starter Jason Bere (2-2).

McGwire now has six homers among his 12 hits, and the Cardinals have homered in 16 consecutive games. They extended their National League record for home runs in April to 47 when Ray Lankford hit a three-run homer in the eighth, and they are only two short of Cleveland’s major league record set in 1997.

Darryl Kile (4-1) struck out a season-high 10 and gave up two runs on six hits while walking one in seven innings.

New York 6, Cincinnati 5--Derek Bell, robbed of a home run earlier by Ken Griffey Jr., homered to spark a seventh-inning rally at New York that carried the Mets to their ninth consecutive victory.

Edgardo Alfonzo and Robin Ventura also homered for the Mets, whose winning streak is their longest since they took nine in a row in May 1998. The Reds have lost four in a row for the first time since September 1998.

Met shortstop Rey Ordonez and third-base coach Cookie Rojas were absent, honoring a call by Cuban-Americans to protest the Elian Gonzalez case. Red outfielder Alex Ochoa, whose parents were born in Cuba, decided to play.

Montreal 10, Colorado 4--Lee Stevens hit a three-run homer and Michael Barrett had a two-run double for the Expos at Montreal.

Chris Widger also homered for Montreal and Carl Pavano (3-0) gave up four runs and nine hits in six innings.

Houston 11, Chicago 7--Moises Alou went four for four and Richard Hidalgo had three RBIs for the Astros at Houston.

Shane Reynolds (4-0) gave up four runs and seven hits in six innings as the Astros ended a three-game skid.

Pittsburgh 4, San Diego 3--Adrian Brown doubled and scored the tying run in the ninth against Trevor Hoffman, then tripled and scored the winning run in the 11th at Pittsburgh.

Brown tripled down the right-field line with one out in the 11th. With the infield drawn in, Warren Morris lined a single into short right field against Carlos Almanzar (0-1).

Jose Silva (3-1) pitched two scoreless innings for the victory.