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Johnson Wins No. 19 for Arizona

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Associated Press

Randy Johnson earned his 19th victory and Steve Finley drove in four runs to lead the Arizona Diamondbacks to a 7-3 victory Monday over the Colorado Rockies at Denver in front of 31,111.

Johnson (19-6) went eight innings and gave up three runs and nine hits.

The Diamondbacks increased their National League West lead to two games over idle San Francisco.

Damian Miller’s two-run homer highlighted a three-run seventh, spoiling a standout performance by Rockies’ starter Denny Neagle. Neagle went six innings, giving up one hit and one run and departed with a 3-1 lead.

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Mark Grace led off the seventh against reliever Gabe White with an infield single. Matt Williams walked, and both runners advanced when catcher Sal Fasano threw wild attempting to catch Grace wandering off second.

Grace scored on Finley’s sacrifice fly, and Miller greeted Kane Davis (1-4) with his 13th homer.

Finley added a two-run double off Jose Jimenez in the eighth, and another run scored on a wild pitch.

Colorado’s Larry Walker left the game in the eighth with a bruised right elbow after being hit by Johnson.

Philadelphia 5, Atlanta 2--Scott Rolen hit two home runs off Greg Maddux to help the Phillies win at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia in the opener of a four-game series and close within 21/2 games of Atlanta in the NL East.

Robert Person (15-6) won his sixth consecutive decision. He gave up two runs and six hits in improving to 11-1 since losing to the New York Mets on June 5.

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Jose Mesa worked the ninth for his 37th save in 40 chances.

Rolen broke a 2-2 tie in the sixth with his 22nd home run, which gave him 100 runs batted in. He had to be coaxed out of the dugout to tip his hat as fans gave him a standing ovation.

Maddux (17-9) gave up three runs and six hits in seven innings. He is 3-4 with a 4.88 earned-run average since Aug. 1.

The paid attendance was 27,910, but the crowd seemed much larger because many tickets were given out for free.

New York 4, Pittsburgh 1--Rey Ordonez’s RBI single started a three-run ninth inning and the Mets won at Pittsburgh. Ordonez’s hit could have easily been scored an error and pinch-hitter Mark Johnson’s two-run double made a winner of John Franco (6-2), a native New Yorker.

The Mets wore caps in pregame ceremonies to honor the New York fire fighters, police and rescue workers, and they also had American flags on their jerseys and caps.

With two out in the ninth, Ordonez hit a shot off third baseman Aramis Ramirez’s glove and it went into left field, with Tsuyoshi Shinjo just beating the throw the plate.

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The Pirates collected about $100,000 in fan contributions for the New York police and fire rescue fund.

The paid attendance was 25,902, but that included seats sold for the Mets-Pirates game that was postponed Sept. 11, the day of the attacks in New York. The Pirates estimated the actual attendance was about 10,000.

St. Louis 2, Milwaukee 1--Coming off his no-hitter, rookie Bud Smith gave up only three singles in seven innings, struck out five and walked one, and was limited to 88 pitches as the Cardinals won at St. Louis in front of 30,528.

The 21-year-old Smith held San Diego hitless Sept. 3. He skipped a start after throwing 134 pitches in that outing, then waited for baseball to resume play after Tuesday’s terrorist attacks.

Florida 10, Montreal 6--Luis Castillo’s two-run triple highlighted an eight-run sixth inning as the Marlins won before the smallest Olympic Stadium crowd at Montreal of the season.

An announced crowd of 3,013--in fact, no more than 1,000 fans were actually on hand--hushed to a silence for pregame ceremonies to honor the victims of last Tuesday’s terrorist attacks.

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The crowd was silenced once again in the fifth inning when Expo starter Javier Vazquez was hit in the helmet by a pitch from Ryan Dempster. Vazquez was taken to the hospital for X-rays. (BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Return Attendance

Attendance at Monday’s major league games-the first since last week’s terrorist attacks-and the home team’s average attendance this season:

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Game Mon. Att. Season Avg. Florida at Montreal 3,013 7,923 Atlanta at Philadelphia 27,910 22,672 N.Y. Mets at Pittsburgh 25,902 31,573 Milwaukee at St. Louis 32,563 38,340 Arizona at Colorado 31,111 39,970 San Diego at Dodgers 40,676 36,939

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