One Bad Pitch Ruins Day for Cubs’ Lieber

Jon Lieber made one bad pitch all day. And when you’re pitching against Greg Maddux, that can be one too many.

Lieber lost a no-hitter when Andres Galarraga homered with two outs in the seventh, and that’s all Maddux needed Monday at Chicago as the Atlanta Braves defeated the Cubs, 1-0.

“It’s all for nothing, it seems like,” Lieber said. “In a tight ballgame late, you really got to be careful. When you face Greg, you’ve got to be on top of your game because there aren’t too many days he’s going to give up a lot of runs.”

Lieber (5-4) struck out a career-high 12, the game then retired 20 in a row. Maddux (7-1) won his third in a row.

The crowd of 40,123 was the largest of the season at Wrigley Field, which got its first look at Brave closer John Rocker since his suspension for making offensive remarks.

Less than two weeks after members of the Dodgers went into the stands aftercatcher Chad Kreuterwas allegedly struck in the back of the neck and had his cap swiped by a fan, security was tight.

After a fan came down the aisle and began screaming at Rocker, he was taken away by security, according to a Chicago Sun-Times reporter. He said Kevin Hallinan, head of security the commissioner’s office, plans to speak with Cubs officials about tightening security in the stands around the bullpen even more.

San Francisco 7, Philadelphia 2--Pinch-hitter Felipe Crespo jump-started the Giants’ dormant offense with a two-run, pinch-hit single in the seventh inning and Bill Mueller followed with a two-run double as the Giants rallied to defeat the Phillies at San Francisco.

The Giants’ Shaw Estes (4-2) allowed one earned run on four hits in seven innings.

St. Louis 3, Arizona 0--Coming off his first complete game in two years, Garrett Stephenson pitched his first career shutout, a six-hitter that led the Cardinals over the Diamondbacks at Phoenix.

Stephenson, who struck out eight and walked none, became the first Cardinal starting pitcher to begin the regular season with eight straight wins.

Colorado 8, Houston 7--Todd Helton homered twice for the second time in three days to help the Rockies rally past the Astros at Denver.

With his fourth multi-homer game this season, Helton raised his season home-run total to 17 and his major-league leading batting average to .415.

Milwaukee 8, San Diego 3--Marquis Grissom hit his first homer in 212 at-bats and drove in four runs at San Diego as the Brewers snapped the Padres’ four-game winning streak. Grissom hadn’t homered since Sept. 30 against Pittsburgh. He hit a leadoff shot to center off Brian Meadows (4-4) in the second, and the Brewers made it 5-0 after three innings.

Pittsburgh 10, Florida 4--Kevin Young and John Vander Wal each drove in three runs as the slumping Pirates defeated the Marlins at Pittsburgh. The Pirates had lost nine of 12 and just returned from a 1-5 trip to Arizona and Colorado.