Giants Sweep the Mets

New York Met Manager Bobby Valentine sat with his head buried in his hands after another disheartening loss.

“The last six or seven days I’ve treated it every way possible. I’ll just come up with another way tomorrow,” Valentine said. “Just about everyone in the lineup had good at-bats. It’s just not enough. Something is just missing.”

Ryan Jensen pitched six strong innings to win for the first time in eight starts and the San Francisco Giants extended the Mets’ longest losing streak since 1991 to 11 games with a 3-1 victory Thursday at San Francisco.

San Francisco won all six meetings with the Mets this season, only the second time in franchise history the Giants have swept a season series. They beat Florida nine times in 1998.

The Giants remained 2 1/2 games behind the Dodgers in the NL wild-card race.

Jensen (11-8) won for the first time since July 15 after giving up one run and six hits. He walked two and struck out two.

Robb Nen pitched the ninth for his 31st save. The Giants improved to 10-0 in the regular season against the Mets at Pacific Bell Park.

Arizona 6, Cincinnati 3--Tony Womack extended his hitting streak to 11 games with a tiebreaking two-run homer in the fifth inning at Phoenix as the Diamondbacks swept the six-game season series from the Reds.

Steve Finley had a solo shot, and four relievers combined for four scoreless innings in support of Miguel Batista (7-7) to help the Diamondbacks win for the 11th time in 12 games.

Byung-Hyun Kim pitched the ninth for his 31st save, breaking the franchise record set by Gregg Olson in 1998.

San Diego 9, Atlanta 2--Left-hander Mike Bynum shut down baseball’s best team in only his second big league start as the Padres took two of three from the Braves at San Diego.

Bynum (1-0), who was promoted from triple-A Portland last Friday and got a no-decision at Montreal the next day, held Atlanta to two runs and six hits in 6 2/3 innings, struck out four and walked two.

Brave starter Jason Marquis (8-8) left with a bruised left calf after being hit by Phil Nevin’s line drive in the third inning, and center fielder Andruw Jones strained his left shoulder and right wrist making a diving catch of Bynum’s fly ball in the sixth.

Colorado 14, Montreal 6--Jay Payton homered and drove in a career-high five runs and Todd Zeile had a home run and three RBIs at Denver in the Rockies victory over the Expos.

Payton went four for five with a triple and three runs. He’s batting .408 with four homers and 15 runs batted in in 71 at-bats since being acquired from the New York Mets on July 31.

Philadelphia 7, Milwaukee 0--Randy Wolf gave up four hits in eight innings at Milwaukee and hit his first home run to lead the Phillies.

Wolf (9-7) struck out seven and walked four as the Brewers fell to 7-20 against left-handers this season. The Phillies are 6-0 in Wolf’s last six starts.

St. Louis 5, Pittsburgh 4--Fernando Vina doubled in two runs with one out in the ninth inning to lift the Cardinals at St. Louis.

Gabe Molina (1-0) pitched a scoreless ninth to earn the victory, the Cardinals’ 12th in their last 15 and third in the four-game series with the Pirates.

Houston 9, Chicago 1--Roy Oswalt pitched eight innings for his sixth consecutive victory and Brad Ausmus homered in the Astros’ six-run first at Houston.

Oswalt (16-6) gave up only a solo homer to Fred McGriff in the seventh inning as he improved to 4-0 in five starts against Chicago this season. Oswalt struck out six.