Glavine, Smoltz Stop Giants, 1-0

Tom Glavine took care of the first seven innings. Then it came down to a classic matchup: Barry Bonds vs. John Smoltz.

Bonds flied out to the warning track in the ninth against Smoltz and the Atlanta Braves held on to a 1-0 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday night at Atlanta.

Glavine won for the fifth time in six starts, but everyone was talking about the matchup between baseball’s reigning home run king and one of the game’s most dominating closers.

“That’s what the fans came to see, power vs. power,” said Gary Sheffield, who drove in the only run with a first-inning single. “It was a win-loss situation, Barry put good wood on it but it stayed in the park. We won that one tonight.”

Even after Jeff Kent flied out to the warning track in right-center, Smoltz didn’t back down from Bonds. The Braves’ closer came in with a 97 mph-fastball on a 3-2 pitch and watched a liner head toward the deepest part of Turner Field.

Andruw Jones, already lined up about as far back as he could get, drifted onto the warning track and made the catch in front of the 400-foot sign.

Smoltz got Benito Santiago on a pop up to end the game, earning his major league-leading 42nd save in 46 chances.

“I was definitely going to challenge Bonds,” Smoltz said. “Obviously, you want to keep it in the park. That was a little close.”

Bonds went one for four with an infield single. He has gone four games without a homer since becoming the fourth player to hit 600 in a career.

Afterward, he refused to talk with reporters.

Glavine (16-6) gave up only five hits for his 240th win, tying him with Frank Tanana and Clark Griffith for 48th on the career list. The left-hander has given up two earned runs or less in 19 of 27 starts this season, bouncing back from a brief slump in early July when he was bothered by a blister.

The Braves got their run after Rafael Furcal led off the game with a double. He moved to third on a grounder and scored on Sheffield’s single to left.

Arizona 7, Cincinnati 2--Tony Womack hit a tiebreaking two-run double and the Diamondbacks took advantage of catcher Jason LaRue’s mishaps with the knuckleball as the Reds lost at Cincinnati. Womack’s sixth-inning double off John Riedling (1-2) snapped a 2-2 tie and sent Arizona to its 18th victory in 22 games.

Knuckleballer Jared Fernandez got his elusive pitch working so well that LaRue could barely get his mitt on it. Arizona scored two unearned runs in the first as LaRue had three passed balls--one shy of the major league record for an inning. The catcher also let a knuckleball get through him for a run-scoring wild pitch.

A strained rib cage muscle ended Luis Gonzalez’s streak of playing in 446 consecutive games. Oakland’s Miguel Tejada now has the longest active streak at 391. Gonzalez hadn’t missed a game since Sept. 30, 1999, when the Diamondbacks rested players before their first playoff appearance.

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San Diego 6, New York 2--Brian Lawrence pitched into the eighth inning and Bubba Trammell and Ron Gant homered as the Padres won at New York to send the Mets to their 10th loss in 13 games.

Lawrence (11-6) has won four of his last five decisions and seven of 10. He gave up one earned run on seven hits in seven-plus innings. He struck out four, walked one and hit two batters. Trevor Hoffman came on with two on and one out in the ninth and got pinch-hitter Marco Scutaro to hit the first pitch for a game-ending double play. Hoffman has 30 saves in 32 chances.

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Florida 1, Colorado 0--Brad Penny pitched eight scoreless innings, giving up only two hits, and Juan Encarnacion drove in the winning run in the ninth to give the Marlins the win at Miami. Penny and Denny Neagle were locked in a pitchers’ duel, with Neagle not allowing a hit until Luis Castillo’s one-out single in the sixth.

The game remained scoreless until the ninth. Mike Redmond led off with a walk against Victor Santos (0-2). Kevin Millar followed with a single that sent pinch-runner Homer Bush to third. After Mike Lowell struck out, Derrek Lee walked to load the bases. Encarnacion hit a grounder to shortstop Juan Uribe, who bobbled the ball, and could only get the out at first base as the winning run scored.

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Houston 4, Chicago 3--Craig Biggio hit a solo homer and Wade Miller won his career-best seventh consecutive decision to help the Astros win at Chicago. Sammy Sosa hit a two-run single with two out in the eighth inning, and pinch-hitter Angel Echevarria drove in another run off of rookie Ricky Stone in the ninth. But Stone, in his first major league save opportunity, struck out Mark Bellhorn to preserve the victory.

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St. Louis 7, Pittsburgh 3--Edgar Renteria homered and drove in three runs as the Cardinals won at Pittsburgh for their fifth consecutive victory. Albert Pujols hit his 27th home run for the Cardinals, who maintained their three-game lead over Houston in the National League Central.

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Philadelphia 4, Milwaukee 1--Rookie Brett Myers took a shutout into the ninth inning before settling for his first career complete game, leading the Phillies to a win at Philadelphia. Myers (2-2), the No. 12 pick in the 1999 draft, retired 17 of the last 19 batters.