Gonzalez Continues to Flex Some Muscle

Luis Gonzalez doesn’t consider himself a home-run hitter. But he’s more of a slugger than Bobby Bonilla is a pitcher.

Gonzalez became the second-fastest major leaguer to 10 home runs and the Arizona Diamondbacks routed the Cardinals, 17-4, Tuesday night at St. Louis.

“It wasn’t a great situation, or a fun situation for anybody,” Bonilla said of his first career pitching appearance. “Tony [La Russa] came by and said ‘Bo have you ever pitched before?’ I said ‘No, but if you need me to do it, I’ll do it.’ ”

He didn’t do it well--giving up two runs, three hits, a walk and a balk in one inning.

It was an odd day overall for the Cardinals, who got half of their offense on a two-run homer by Gene Stechschulte, a pitcher making his first career at-bat.

The game was out of reach by the time Bonilla came in, as Gonzalez’s two-run homer in the first inning was the first of five Arizona home runs in the game.

Gonzalez reached 10 homers in 14 games--two games slower than Mike Schmidt’s record in 1976.

“It’s kind of weird to hear that,” Gonzalez said. “When you think of all the players to play this game and to do something like that is kind of an oddity.”

New York 4, Montreal 0--Glendon Rusch threw seven shutout innings and Todd Zeile homered and drove in three runs to lead the Mets at New York.

Rusch (1-0), who has not given up a run in 14 innings at home this season, gave up five hits, walked three and struck out nine.

Colorado 9, San Diego 5--Juan Uribe hit a bases-loaded triple and Larry Walker a two-run homer as the Rockies won at San Diego.

Starter Pedro Astacio (2-1) limited the Padres to two runs and five hits in six innings.

Florida 3, Atlanta 2--Charles Johnson hit a tiebreaking homer in the seventh inning at Atlanta and the Marlin bullpen finally protected a lead.

Vladimir Nunez (1-1) gave up only four hits in seven innings for his first win since 1999. He was 0-6 with a 7.90 ERA last year.

Cincinnati 3, Milwaukee 2--Barry Larkin returned to the Reds’ lineup, drove in a run and scored twice at Cincinnati.

The Reds sold only 15,729 tickets for their first home game since the city’s rioting last week.

Philadelphia 6, Chicago 3--Pat Burrell hit a go-ahead two-run double in the ninth inning after Jeff Fassero walked the bases loaded at Chicago.

Fassero (0-1) had saved six games in as many opportunities and not walked a batter in 7 1/3 innings this season.

Houston at Pittsburgh, snow--The game was snowed out and will be made up as a split doubleheader July 28.