Chacon Stops Giants, Ends Slide

With a performance that exceeded his expectations, Shawn Chacon became the unlikely antidote to the Colorado Rockies’ struggles.

Chacon pitched seven innings of two-hit ball, yielding only an unearned run, as the Rockies ended a four-game losing streak with a 5-3 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Sunday at Pacific Bell Park.

The loss ended the Giants’ five-game winning streak and left them 2 1/2 games behind the first-place Dodgers in the NL West.

Though closer Jose Jimenez made things interesting by giving up Ramon Martinez’s two-run homer in the ninth, the game belonged to Chacon (4-6), who earned his first victory since May 8.

“For my first game after the All-Star break, it was better even than I wanted it to be,” said Chacon, who walked one and faced only two batters over the minimum. “To go seven innings and give up one run is not something I expected to do.”

With all four of his pitches working, Chacon frustrated the Giants. It was a remarkable turnabout by Chacon, who spent most of May on the disabled list because of a strained chest muscle.

Terry Shumpert homered and drove in two runs for the Rockies, who scored only three runs in the first 28 innings of the series. Colorado had a four-run sixth inning capped by Gary Bennett’s two-run single.

Montreal 10, Atlanta 3--Wil Cordero hit his third career grand slam and had five runs batted in to lead the Expos before the third-largest Olympic Stadium crowd of the season.

With 25,109--Montreal’s third crowd over 20,000 this season--in the park for a Tim Raines bobblehead promotion, the second-place Expos split the four-game series to draw to within 9 1/2 games of the Braves in the NL East.

Brad Wilkerson and Jose Vidro hit two-out singles in the third inning and Vladimir Guerrero walked before Cordero hit an 0-2 pitch from Damian Moss (4-4) over the left-field wall.

Chicago 10, Florida 3--Sammy Sosa hit one of Chicago’s four homers--his 29th--to support Mark Prior as the Cubs completed a sweep of the Marlins at Wrigley Field.

Sosa’s homer, a two-run shot in the seventh, tied him with Houston’s Lance Berkman for the National League lead. Corey Patterson, Alex Gonzalez and Bill Mueller homered in the eighth.

Prior (3-2) gave up two runs and five hits over six innings. He struck out five and walked three to win for the first time in six starts since June 7.

The Cubs swept a three-game series for the first time this season and improved to 4-1 under new Manager Bruce Kimm.

Milwaukee 5, Pittsburgh 3--Jose Hernandez celebrated his 33rd birthday in style, hitting two homers and driving in four runs to lead the Brewers, who beat the Pirates for the first time in seven games at Miller Park this season.

Despite being on pace to strike out 201 times and break Bobby Bonds’ single-season NL record of 189, Hernandez leads National League shortstops with 17 homers and 46 RBIs.

New York 4, Philadelphia 2--Pedro Astacio yielded only four hits, including homers by Ricky Ledee and Bobby Abreu, in seven innings and retired 13 of the last 14 batters he faced to beat the Phillies for the second time in 12 days and enable the Mets to gain a split of the four-game series at Shea Stadium.

St. Louis 4, San Diego 1--Bud Smith got his first win of the season against the team he no-hit last September and helped himself by driving in a run at San Diego.

Smith (1-5) struggled so badly that he was scratched from a start before the All-Star break. He had no problem against the Padres, holding them to three hits in seven scoreless innings.

Cincinnati 8, Houston 3--Knuckleballer Jared Fernandez pitched seven strong innings at Houston for his first major league win as the Reds ended their four-game losing streak and the Astros’ five-game winning streak.