Cubs Overpower Reds Behind Wood, Sosa

One long, wild inning turned Kerry Wood’s season debut into more of a preview.

Wood struck out 10 batters in five innings and Sammy Sosa hit his first home run, and the Chicago Cubs defeated the Cincinnati Reds, 10-3, Wednesday night at Cincinnati.

Wood (1-0) came out for a pinch-hitter in the sixth inning because he had thrown 104 pitches on a cold night. The right-hander threw 34 in the second inning, only 14 for strikes.

“We made him throw a lot of pitches,” Red third baseman Aaron Boone said. “He’s one of those pitchers that it’s no fun going out to face, especially on a night like this. We were able to scratch a couple of runs together, and then he settled in.”

Unfortunately for Wood, by the time he settled down, it was time to go.

“I started out the way I wanted, but I came out in the second inning and the walks hurt,” said Wood, who walked four. “I was able to get it back together and go from there.”

The lopsided game got heated in the ninth, when Red reliever Luis Pineda hit two batters and was ejected by plate umpire Mike Everitt. Both benches and bullpens emptied, but the players did nothing more than mill about for a few minutes.

Florida 6, Montreal 5--A.J. Burnett (1-0) took a shutout into the eighth inning, and Derrek Lee hit a grand slam for Florida in front of 4,779 at Montreal.

Trailing, 6-1, in the ninth, the Expos scored four runs behind homers by Michael Barrett and Vladimir Guerrero.

Philadelphia 3, Atlanta 1--Vicente Padilla (1-0) pitched six strong innings in his first major league start and Pat Burrell hit a solo home run and scored twice at Atlanta.

The Braves’ Gary Sheffield homered for the second consecutive game.

Pittsburgh 5, New York 3--Pokey Reese drove in three runs at New York, two after an error by Gold Glove second baseman Roberto Alomar in the sixth inning.

Mo Vaughn hit his 300th career home run and his first in the National League.

Aramis Ramirez drove in two runs for the Pirates and Kip Wells (1-0) gave up two runs and four hits in five innings. Mike Williams pitched a perfect ninth for the save.

Houston 15, Milwaukee 2--Daryle Ward homered during an eight-run fourth inning and finished with four runs batted in at Houston.

Ward, who got a starting job in the outfield when Moises Alou signed with the Cubs in the off-season, tied a career high with three hits. He also had a double.

Colorado 6, St. Louis 3--Denny Neagle (1-0) gave up one run and five hits in six innings, and Larry Walker hit a three-run home run for the Rockies at St. Louis.

Garrett Stephenson (0-1), coming off reconstructive elbow surgery, had a rocky return to the rotation for the Cardinals. He gave up six runs and six hits in four innings in 45-degree weather.

San Diego 8, Arizona 7--D’Angelo Jimenez’s single drove in the go-ahead run and Phil Nevin doubled in two more in the ninth inning at Phoenix.

San Diego catcher Wiki Gonzalez fractured a bone in his left wrist when he fouled off a pitch and will be sidelined six to eight weeks.