Phillies Rally Past the Expos

Chase Utley rounded first base, looked up and realized he had just delivered the biggest hit of his young career.

Utley’s bases-clearing triple with two out in the eighth inning lifted the Philadelphia Phillies to a 5-3 victory over the Montreal Expos on Tuesday night at Philadelphia.

The Phillies have won four of five and moved into a tie with Florida for the wild-card lead.

“I was just trying to put the ball in play and drive in a run,” said Utley, who hit a grand slam against Colorado for his first hit in the majors earlier this season. “That was a big win for us.”

The Expos have lost five in a row since sweeping a four-game series against the Phillies in Montreal last week.

After Endy Chavez gave the Expos a 3-2 lead on an RBI infield single in the eighth, the Phillies came back against Javier Vazquez (12-9).

Jim Thome walked with two out in the eighth and Mike Lieberthal doubled. Ricky Ledee was intentionally walked to load the bases and Utley followed with his first career triple, a liner to left-center.

Utley had made two fielding blunders at second base, including one that led to the go-ahead run in the eighth.

“He didn’t have a good night until the last at-bat,” Phillie Manager Larry Bowa said. “He got a huge hit. That tells you about the makeup of the kid. He’s an intelligent hitter.”

Rheal Cormier (5-0) pitched the eighth for the win, and Dan Plesac worked the ninth for his second save.

“We needed this. I needed this,” Plesac said.

Thome hit his 38th homer and Amaury Telemaco gave up two runs in seven innings for the Phillies, who are in the middle of a stretch of playing 27 consecutive days.

Vazquez hadn’t given up a run in his last three starts, spanning 26 innings. He gave up five runs and eight hits in eight innings.

Thome’s one-out homer in the fourth ended Vazquez’s scoreless streak at 29 1/3 innings.

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San Diego 6, Arizona 3 -- Trevor Hoffman pitched a perfect seventh inning in his first appearance of the season, and Phil Nevin and Mark Loretta homered at San Diego.

Brian Giles went 0 for 3 with a walk and one RBI in his home debut with the Padres a week after they acquired him from Pittsburgh.

The crowd cheered when Hoffman started warming up in the bullpen in the bottom of the sixth, and gave him a standing ovation when he jogged in for the top of the seventh.

He retired the side on eight pitches, none faster than 86 mph, and didn’t throw his trademark changeup.

The Diamondbacks lost their fourth in a row and were defeated for the 13th time in 19 games.

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San Francisco 2, Colorado 1 -- Pedro Feliz hit a tiebreaking homer in the seventh inning, and Rich Aurilia went four for four on his 32nd birthday at San Francisco.

Barry Bonds got a standing ovation in his first home game since the death of his father, Bobby, on Aug. 23.

An oversize replica of the circular “BB” black patches on the Giants’ sleeves has been placed on the right-field wall at Pacific Bell Park.

Bonds responded to the ovation with a double off that wall in the second, earning another round of raucous cheers. He went one for two with two walks -- and despite the Giants’ one-run lead, hundreds of fans headed for the exits after Javier Lopez struck out Bonds looking in the eighth.

Aurilia matched his career high for hits and drove in Bonds with an RBI single as the Giants won for the 22nd time in their last 26 home games. In its return from a 5-2 trip, San Francisco improved to 40-17 against the rest of the NL West.

Larry Walker hit his first homer in two weeks for the Rockies, who lost their ninth road game in a row.

Colorado Manager Clint Hurdle was ejected from the dugout in the seventh inning for arguing balls and strikes with umpire Ted Barrett.

Matt Herges (3-2) pitched out of a jam in the seventh for his first victory with the Giants, who acquired him from San Diego in July. Tim Worrell pitched the ninth for his 33rd save in 39 chances.

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Pittsburgh 3, Florida 2 -- Jason Kendall had four hits and two RBIs at Miami.

Kendall, who went six for 11 in a three-game sweep of the Marlins last week, had three singles and a double for the Pirates, who ended a two-game losing streak.

Dontrelle Willis (11-6) fell to 0-4 in his last five starts for the Marlins, whose four-game winning streak was stopped.

Willis gave up three runs -- two earned -- and six runs and struck out eight in 6 2/3 innings. Willis, who made the All-Star team as a rookie, has three wins in 12 starts since July 2.

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Chicago 4-0, St. Louis 2-2 -- Matt Morris outpitched Kerry Wood and Jim Edmonds two home runs for the Cardinals in a doubleheader split at Chicago.

Sammy Sosa hit a two-run homer in the 15th inning to give the Cubs a 4-2 victory in the 4-hour, 47-minute opener.

Morris (9-4) gave up five hits in seven scoreless innings. He got his first victory since June 25 and ran his record against the Cubs to 10-2, including 3-0 this season.

Edmonds, who also homered in the opener, led off the second inning of Game 2 with his 36th homer. He left in the eighth with a bruised right knee.

The Cardinals restored their lead over the Cubs in the NL Central to 1 1/2 games.

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New York 3, Atlanta 1 -- Al Leiter outpitched Mike Hampton and Jason Phillips drove in two runs at New York.

Danny Garcia singled twice in his major league debut for the Mets, who beat Atlanta for the fourth time in five meetings. Mike Piazza ended an 0-for-17 skid with a two-out RBI single in the seventh inning.

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Milwaukee 4, Cincinnati 3 -- Keith Ginter hit a two-run homer and Eddie Perez drove in two runs at Milwaukee.

Perez hit a tiebreaking double, his third hit, off Danny Graves (4-15) in the bottom of the eighth after the Brewers squandered a 3-0 lead.

Milwaukee has won 13 of 15.