Kent Makes Brewers Pay a High Price

It would figure that Milwaukee’s Paul Rigdon pitched carefully to the Giants’ Barry Bonds after walking Marvin Benard and Bill Mueller in the second inning Wednesday at San Francisco.

Everybody pitches carefully to Bonds.

But Rigdon was so careful that he walked Bonds to load the bases for Jeff Kent, who unloaded them with a grand slam in the Giants’ 9-3 victory.

The win, plus Arizona’s 4-3 loss to Montreal, stretched San Francisco’s lead in the NL West to three games.

The four RBIs gave Kent 102, putting him over 100 for the fourth season in a row. Typically, he understated the whole thing.

“I was just hoping it would get away from the left fielder,” Kent said of the ninth grand slam of his career. “I’d rather not talk about it.”

Giant catcher Doug Mirabelli put the scenario in perspective.

“In that situation, you’re caught between a rock and a hard place. If you don’t walk Barry, then he beats you,” Mirabelli said. “If you do, then you have one of the guys leading the National Leagues in RBIs. What are you going to do?”

In this case, fall behind, 5-0, which was more than enough for San Francisco’s Kirk Rueter (8-7). He scattered five hits over seven innings and drove in his first run of the season, then signed a three-year contract extension.

“I love it here,” he said. “My family is comfortable here.”

The Giants love him in San Francisco. He is their first left-hander to win 13 games in three consecutive seasons since Vida Blue, and Rueter’s 78-46 lifetime record gives him the third-highest winning percentage, at .629, among left-handers in the major leagues since 1980. He trails only Arizona’s Randy Johnson and the Yankees’ Andy Pettitte.

Montreal 4, Arizona 3--The Expos remained the only team Randy Johnson hasn’t beaten, though he left the game at Phoenix with a 3-2 lead after seven innings.

Vladimir Guerrero tied it with his 29th home run of the season, off reliever Geraldo Guzman (3-3), leading off the eighth. Terry Jones’ one-out single off reliever Greg Swindell drove across the winning run two batters later.

Philadelphia 3, San Diego 2--Mike Lieberthal’s ninth-inning sacrifice fly scored Doug Glanville with the winning run for the Phillies at Philadelphia.

Left fielder Eric Owens made a strong throw to the plate, but Glanville got his left hand around the glove of catcher Ben Davis to score.

Cincinnati 10, Atlanta 6--The second home run of Pete Harnisch’s career finished a five-run rally against Tom Glavine (14-6) and powered the Reds to a milestone victory at Cincinnati.

The Reds took two of three for their first winning series against the Braves since September 1996.

After a storm dumped rain and hail on the field, lightning flashed throughout the game, drawing repeated oohs from the 31,098 fans and quick glances from the players. Rolling thunder rattled the suite windows.

The crowd relished Glavine’s meltdown after seven consecutive wins. He held a 6-2 lead, but lasted only four-plus innings against the team he has beaten more than any other. He is 21-9 against the Reds.

Ken Griffey Jr. led off the fifth inning with a single and paused at second on Dante Bichette’s single to center, then took off for third when Atlanta’s Andruw Jones made a half-hearted lob to the infield. Dmitri Young’s double tied it and ended Glavine’s outing.

Alex Ochoa hit a liner to center that shot past Jones for a two-run triple off reliever Stan Belinda. Two outs later, Harnisch hit a 2-and-2 pitch over the wall.

Florida 5, St. Louis 3--Mike Lowell’s three-run home run capped a four-run eighth inning for the Marlins, who won at St. Louis.

Colorado 4, Pittsburgh 3--The Rockies scored two runs on right fielder Alex Ramirez’s error with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning to win at Denver.

New York 12, Houston 5--Rick Reed pitched seven strong innings and Mike Piazza returned to the Met lineup with a three-run homer in their win at Houston.

Piazza missed New York’s previous three games because of a mild knee sprain.