Brewers Win Again Under Royster

Jerry Royster has a simple explanation for the Milwaukee Brewers’ success since he replaced Davey Lopes as manager.

The Brewers won their third in a row under Royster, defeating the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-3, Saturday at Milwaukee behind Alex Sanchez’s tiebreaking single in the eighth inning.

“The reason for the turnaround is that we were so bad, there was no place else to go,” Royster said. “I can’t be any more serious than that. We went two weeks with really not hitting.”

Milwaukee, 3-12 when Lopes was fired Thursday, has won three in a row for the first time since a four-game streak last Aug. 16-19.

“We haven’t worried about the past,” said Royster, interim manager while the team searches for a permanent replacement. “We’ve played very good baseball the last three days. We’ve hit, played defense and pitched very well. We’ve also run the bases extremely well. We’ve executed extremely well. That turns into victories.”

Luis Vizcaino (2-1) retired the only batter he faced in the seventh inning for the victory and Mike DeJean finished for his third save in four chances.

Starter Glendon Rusch gave up one run and four hits in six innings.

San Francisco 13, Houston 9--J.T. Snow tied a career high with four hits and drove in five runs as the Giants remained unbeaten in 11 games at Astros Field.

Snow capped the scoring with his first home run this season, a two-run drive off Octavio Dotel in the ninth.

The Giants’ 12-5 start is their best since 1997.

Atlanta 3, Florida 1--Greg Maddux pitched six innings, and Chipper Jones hit a three-run homer to pull the Braves back up to .500 with a victory at Atlanta.

Maddux (2-0), who left his last start after one inning with a nagging back injury, gave up one run on five hits in six innings.

Gary Sheffield, who had missed the last three games because of a sprained wrist, was back in the lineup using a 31-ounce bat but went 0 for 4.

Montreal 7, New York 5--Brad Wilkerson hit a two-run homer and Orlando Cabrera had an RBI double to cap a three-run fifth against Shawn Estes (0-2) for the victory at Montreal.

Before 11,464, the largest Olympic Stadium crowd since opening night, Montreal took advantage of two errors by New York, which has five in the series and a major league-leading 26 this season.

Pittsburgh 6, Philadelphia 5--The Pirates turned sloppy infield defense by the Phillies and Jack Wilson’s three-run double into five unearned runs and a 6-0 lead at Pittsburgh as they held on for their fifth consecutive victory.

Ron Villone (2-2) pitched five shutout innings and Mike Williams pitched the ninth for his eighth save.

Cincinnati 6, Chicago 1--Juan Encarnacion drove in four runs and Elmer Dessens (1-3) pitched 71/3 scoreless innings as the Reds defeated the Cubs at Chicago.