No-Hitter, and Win, Escape Eaton

Adam Eaton took a no-hit bid into the eighth inning for the San Diego Padres -- and didn’t even get the win.

The Kansas City Royals rallied for four runs in the eighth before Khalil Greene’s sacrifice fly in the bottom of the inning gave the Padres a 5-4 victory Saturday night.

Eaton, trying for the first no-hitter in Padre history, held Kansas City hitless until Dee Brown doubled off the left-field fence leading off the eighth.

Ruben Mateo’s double drove in Brown, and Manager Bruce Bochy removed Eaton.

Jose Bautista drove in a run with a groundout. After pinch-hitter Desi Relaford walked, Tony Graffanino hit a two-out, two-run homer to left field against Akinori Otsuka to tie the score, 4-4.

Eaton struck out 10 and walked one. He gave up two runs and two hits.

Kerry Robinson, sent to the minors after the game, doubled leading off the bottom of the eighth against Scott Sullivan (3-2) and went to third on Jay Payton’s fly to center.

Greene, who had three runs batted in, hit a fly ball to medium right field, and Robinson slid home safely when Matt Stairs’ throw to the plate hit kneeling first baseman Ken Harvey in the back. Harvey was looking at the plate instead of the ball.

Only two runners reached base against Eaton in the first seven innings. He hit Harvey with a pitch in the first and walked him in the fourth.

Eaton was the 10th pitcher in San Diego’s 36-year history to take a no-hit bid into the eighth. The Padres, New York Mets, Colorado and Tampa Bay are the only teams without a no-hitter.

Three of those 10 close calls came July 3. Randy Jones held Cincinnati hitless into the eighth inning in 1975 and Andy Benes got into the eighth against the Mets in 1994.

Chicago Cubs 4, Chicago White Sox 2 -- Greg Maddux pitched around three rain delays for his 296th victory, and Sammy Sosa backed him with a home run and an outstanding sliding catch at Wrigley Field.

The game was called after it was delayed a fourth time for 77 minutes after the top of the sixth inning.

Returning to the mound after delays of 31, 15 and 59 minutes, Maddux (7-6) gave up five hits and two runs in 5 1/3 innings.

St. Louis 8, Seattle 1 -- Jim Edmonds returned to the lineup with a home run and three runs batted in, and Jason Marquis (8-4) pitched effectively before and after a one-hour rain delay at St. Louis.

Albert Pujols hit a two-run homer and Edmonds, making his first start in center field in eight days, finished two for three.

Bret Boone homered and Randy Winn had two hits for the Mariners, who have lost nine of 12.

Tampa Bay 6, Florida 1 -- Victor Zambrano gave up four hits in seven shutout innings at Miami and drove in the first run of his career.

The Devil Rays improved to 30-10 since May 20 and moved two games over .500 (40-38) for the first time since starting the 2002 season 3-1.

The Marlins have lost four in a row and 11 of 15.

Zambrano (9-4) won his sixth consecutive decision and hasn’t lost since May 15. He struck out four and walked four.

Cincinnati 4, Cleveland 2 -- Paul Wilson won for the first time in more than a month and D’Angelo Jimenez hit a two-run homer at Cincinnati.

Wilson (8-2) held Cleveland to two runs in 6 2/3 innings, one night after the Indians set a season high for runs against five Cincinnati pitchers in a 15-2 win.

Danny Graves pitched a perfect ninth for his major league-leading 31st save in 38 opportunities.

Philadelphia 7, Baltimore 6 -- Pinch-hitter Tomas Perez hit a run-scoring single against B.J. Ryan in the eighth inning for the host Phillies, who had tied the score, 6-6, earlier in the inning on David Bell’s two-run homer against Jason Grimsley (3-5).

Miguel Tejada and Luis Lopez each homered and Erik Bedard had a career-high 10 strikeouts for Baltimore, which had won three in a row.

Houston 10, Texas 8 -- Morgan Ensberg hit a grand slam, and Mike Lamb and Raul Chavez each drove in two runs for the Astros.

The teams combined for 13 runs in the nearly hour-long fifth inning, giving the sellout crowd of 42,889 at Houston an offensive outburst on fireworks night.

Alfonso Soriano and Gary Matthews Jr. each hit three-run homers in the fifth, giving the Rangers a 6-1 lead before the Astros rallied.

Toronto 2, Montreal 0 -- Roy Halladay (7-5) showed his Cy Young form, pitching seven sharp innings at San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Eric Hinske finished four for four and scored twice on singles by Chris Gomez.

A 36-minute delay in the bottom of the fourth inning because of rain nearly ended Halladay’s start early because Manager Carlos Tosca said he would have pulled the right-hander had the delay extended to 40 or 45 minutes.

Colorado 11, Detroit 6 -- Vinny Castilla drove in three runs and Preston Wilson put an emphatic end to his slump with a two-run homer for the Rockies at Denver.

Castilla had two hits in four at-bats, leaving him two hits short of tying Jorge Orta (1,619) for most by a Mexican-born player.

Wilson hit his first homer of the year, against Mike Maroth (5-6) in the fifth inning. He finished two for five to end a four-for-43 slump.

Minnesota 8, Arizona 4 -- Doug Mientkiewicz drove in three runs with a home run and a double at Phoenix to help the Twins move into a virtual tie with the White Sox atop the AL Central.

Mientkiewicz has five homers this season, two in the last two games.

Luis Rivas and Joe Mauer also homered for the Twins, and Terry Mulholland earned his first victory in his first start this season.

Luis Gonzalez and Juan Brito homered for Arizona.

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NATIONAL LEAGUE

Pittsburgh 5, Milwaukee 3 -- Randall Simon’s opposite-field double drove in two runs to end a sixth-inning tie and the host Pirates won their eighth in a row.

Jason Bay had a run-scoring single to help the Pirates win their ninth in 11 games since they lost 19 of 22. The winning streak is their longest since an eight-game run Sept. 1-8, 2000, during Gene Lamont’s last month as manager.

Kris Benson (6-7) won for only the second time in seven starts.