It’s a Far Cry From Normal for Maddux

Greg Maddux was standing at his locker, trying to figure out the worst game of his career, when teammate Vinny Castilla walked by with a bawling child.

“There’s no crying in baseball,” someone said, trying to lighten the mood.

“Too bad,” Maddux replied, not even cracking a smile.

The four-time Cy Young Award winner surrendered a career-high 10 runs in 42/3 innings, and the Arizona Diamondbacks routed the Atlanta Braves, 11-5, Thursday night at Atlanta.

“I embarrassed my team, my manager and myself,” said Maddux, whose ERA went from 0.75 to 3.78. “I’ve got to figure it out, so it doesn’t happen again.”

Damian Miller drove in four runs as the Diamondbacks took two of three from the Braves.

Maddux (2-1), bothered this season by a sore back, was knocked out during a horrendous fifth. He gave up eight runs--a career high for an inning--and walked four, tying his high.

Two of the walks were intentional and a crucial error by Wes Helms made four of the runs unearned. Still, that didn’t ease the sting for Maddux, who had never given up more than eight runs.

“You don’t forget this--never,” Maddux said. “If I forget this, I’m stupid.”

In all, Maddux walked five and hit a batter. Most stunning of all, he threw more balls (52) than strikes (48).

Hardly the kind of performance one would expect from one of baseball’s best control pitchers. Last year, Maddux set an NL record by going 721/3 innings without a walk.

New York 7, St. Louis 6--Pinch-hitter Mark Johnson hit a tie-breaking home run against Dave Veres (2-2) in the eighth at New York--the Mets’ first homer in 301 at-bats since April 15.

New York scored five runs in the fifth to rally from a 5-1 deficit and take two of three from St. Louis, which lost for the ninth time in 11 games.

Cincinnati 4, Colorado 3--Third baseman Todd Zeile bounced a throw into the Red dugout, allowing the go-ahead run to score in the eighth inning at Cincinnati as the Reds completed a three-game sweep.

Cincinnati scored the go-ahead run without benefit of a hit off Rick White (0-1), who walked Todd Walker and threw a wild pitch before Ruben Mateo’s grounder to Zeile.

Florida 5, Houston 4--A.J. Burnett (3-2) struck out nine in seven innings, giving up three runs and five hits, and Kevin Millar hit a tie-breaking solo home run off Shane Reynolds (2-3) in the seventh in front of 5,367 at Miami.

Montreal 5, Milwaukee 1--Lee Stevens, Chris Truby and Jose Vidro homered in front of a season-low 3,501 at Montreal as the Expos stretched a winning streak to six games for the first time since May 31-June 5, 2000.

San Diego 6, Philadelphia 4--Mark Kotsay homered and hit a two-run triple at Philadelphia as the Padres overcame a 3-1 deficit in the seventh with four runs off starter Vicente Padilla and Rheal Cormier (1-2).