Maddux Is Dominant in Braves’ 1-0 Victory

Greg Maddux pitched a two-hitter and had a career-high 14 strikeouts Wednesday night, leading the Atlanta Braves over Paul Rigdon and the Milwaukee Brewers, 1-0, at Atlanta.

“As a hitter, you can’t guess with Maddux,” Brave Manager Bobby Cox said. “I don’t know why. He’s just one of those special guys. He was phenomenal.”

Maddux (3-2) retired his last 13 batters, striking out six in a row at one point in his 100th complete game and 32nd shutout.

“I looked up and saw he had 11 strikeouts with only 80-something pitches,” pitching coach Leo Mazzone said. “That’s going one strike, two strikes, three strikes, with not too much fooling around.”

Appropriately, Tyler Houston struck out swinging for the final out on a fastball low and away. Maddux pumped his fist, took the ball from catcher Paul Bako and threw it high into the stands on his way to the dugout.

“He can’t pitch any better than that,” Brewer Manager Davey Lopes said. “If he can, I don’t want to see it.”

Houston 6, New York 5--Lance Berkman and Moises Alou hit back-to-back homers in the 10th inning at New York.

Billy Wagner (1-1) got out of a bases-loaded, none-out jam in the 10th.

Until the Astros hit five solo homers off the Met bullpen, the biggest excitement came when Houston’s Jose Lima hit New York’s Jay Payton with a pitch in the sixth inning, causing both benches to clear and the two players to be ejected.

Chicago 8, San Diego 3--Sammy Sosa hit his 200th home run at Wrigley Field, and the rest of the Cubs joined in on the home run parade at Chicago.

Gary Matthews Jr., Bill Mueller and Eric Young all hit two-run homers to back Jon Lieber, who got his first victory at home this year. Lieber (3-1) gave up three runs and five hits in eight innings.

Sosa, who has 394 career home runs, joined Ernie Banks (290), Billy Williams (231) and Ron Santo (212) as the only Cubs with 200 homers at Wrigley.

St. Louis 4, Florida 2--Ray Lankford hit a two-run home run in the 11th inning to lead the Cardinals at Miami.

J.D. Drew walked to lead off the 11th and moved to second on Edgar Renteria’s sacrifice. Lankford followed with an opposite-field shot off Antonio Alfonseca (1-2). It was Lankford’s 14th career homer against Florida.

San Francisco 7, Pittsburgh 6--Armando Rios hit a go-ahead, three-run homer in the sixth inning at Pittsburgh as the Giants handed the Pirates their fourth consecutive loss.

Barry Bonds hit his 12th homer of the season and the 506th of his career.

Colorado 6, Philadelphia 2--Todd Hollandsworth homered and had two RBIs, and Brooks Kieschnick hit a two-run single for his first hit in the majors in four years as the Rockies won at Philadelphia.

Montreal 4, Arizona 3--Tony Armas Jr. hit a two-run single and gave up one hit in six shutout innings to lead the Expos at Montreal.

Armas (1-4), who allowed just two runners, singled off Brian Anderson (0-3) with the bases loaded and two out in a three-run fourth.

Arizona’s Luis Gonzalez hit his major league-leading 14th home run off Guillermo Mota in the seventh.

Montreal drew 4,352, 12 more than in Tuesday night’s game, which had the lowest attendance at Olympic Stadium in 11 years.