Baerga Helps Diamondbacks

Carlos Baerga hasn’t felt this good at the plate in years, and Curt Schilling is looking like his old self too.

Baerga drove in a career-best seven runs with two homers and a double and Schilling pitched a four-hitter for his first victory of the season as the Arizona Diamondbacks routed the Colorado Rockies, 11-2, Thursday at Phoenix.

The Diamondbacks, who rallied for three runs in the ninth to beat the Rockies, 4-3, Wednesday night, won consecutive games for the first time this season.

“This was vintage D’Backs today,” Schilling said. “You hope to build on something like yesterday, and I think we did that today.”

Baerga, starting at second base in place of slumping Junior Spivey, hit his first grand slam in nearly 10 years off Jason Jennings in the second inning. The only other slam in Baerga’s 11-year major league career came for Cleveland against Oakland on July 20, 1993.

He added a two-run homer, also off Jennings, in the fourth as the Diamondbacks split the four-game series. Baerga capped his big day with an RBI double to right-center off Jose Jimenez in the seventh.

Schilling gave up a double to Ronnie Belliard to start the game, then retired 19 in a row before Todd Helton singled with one out in the seventh.

Chicago 16, Cincinnati 3 -- Sammy Sosa hit his 503rd homer -- leaving him one behind Eddie Murray for 17th place on the career list -- one of four the Cubs hit at Wrigley Field.

With the wind gusting in from the northeast at 14 mph, this figured to be a pitcher’s duel. But the Cubs had 16 hits. Sosa’s homer sailed all the way to Waveland Avenue. Kerry Wood, Hee Seop Choi and Mark Grudzielanek hit the others.

The Cubs scored at least 10 runs for the third straight day, the first time they’ve done that against the Reds since August 1894, according to team historian Ed Hartig.

New York 7, Pittsburgh 2 -- Jae Weong Seo, his future in the Mets’ rotation thought to be uncertain, pitched seven shutout innings for his first major league victory and Mo Vaughn had four hits and drove in four runs at Pittsburgh.

Vaughn had a run-scoring double in the first inning and a three-run double in the seventh.

Jeromy Burnitz and Mike Piazza hit long homers as the Mets won for only the third time on a 10-game road trip in which they averaged only three runs.

Florida 7, Philadelphia 3 -- Mike Lowell picked one of the coldest days of the season to have one of the best days of his career.

Lowell drove in four runs with three extra-base hits and Carl Pavano pitched six shutout innings to lead the Marlins at Philadelphia in a game that began in 43-degree weather but got considerably colder.

Luis Castillo had three hits, three stolen bases and scored twice for the Marlins, who stole five bases to gain a split of the four-game series.

Atlanta 14, Montreal 8 -- Javy Lopez hit his second home run of the game, a grand slam in the 10th inning, giving the Braves a three-game sweep at San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Even though a 53-minute rain delay washed out batting practice, the hitters quickly got into the swing of things as Rafael Furcal homered on the third pitch of the game by Livan Hernandez.

Marcus Giles homered, doubled twice and singled, and Andruw Jones also homered as the Braves won their fourth in a row and reached .500 for the first time this season.

Milwaukee 4, Houston 2 -- Matt Kinney (2-1) pitched seven crisp innings -- giving up four singles while walking only one -- and Richie Sexson and Geoff Jenkins hit consecutive home runs at Milwaukee.

The win combined with Cincinnati’s loss puts the Brewers in fifth place in the NL Central, the first time they’ve been out of the cellar since May 18, 2002.

Kinney, the Brewers’ No. 5 starter, is the only Brewer pitcher with more than one victory. Valerio De Los Santos got six outs for his first save.