Payton Enjoys Colorado Return

Jay Payton’s best season came with the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field.

Switching uniforms hasn’t slowed him down at the hitter-friendly park.

Payton had four hits and four runs batted in, including a two-run home run in the eighth inning, to lead the San Diego Padres over the Rockies, 11-6, Tuesday night.

“I haven’t been swinging it great this year and I was just kind of hoping that I could come in here and get hot and maybe try to carry it over,” Payton said.

Payton arrived in Colorado in a 2002 trade with the New York Mets and wound up hitting .335 with eight homers and 28 RBIs in his first 47 games at Coors Field. He followed that up with the best season of his career, batting .302 with 28 homers and 89 RBIs.

Payton’s big season essentially put him out of Colorado’s price range -- the Rockies got Jeromy Burnitz to play left field for less money -- but there were no hard feelings from either side when he signed with the Padres.

“It was a business decision and it didn’t work out for us or for them,” Payton said. “I had no problem, but it was nice to come in and get a win.”

Payton entered the game batting .270 with two homers and 15 RBIs.

Colorado lost its sixth consecutive game and pitching hurt the Rockies again.

Joe Kennedy gave up six runs and seven hits in five innings, Jeff Fassero (0-3) gave up the go-ahead run on three two-strike hits in the seventh and Brian Fuentes was roughed up for three runs in the eighth.

“We pitch like we did tonight, we are not going to win many ballgames,” Manager Clint Hurdle said.

San Diego’s pitching wasn’t much better in the early going, but the bullpen did its job.

Five relievers gave up four hits in the last six innings, and Scott Linebrink (2-0) got the victory by striking out two in a scoreless sixth.

“The ‘pen saved us,” Manager Bruce Bochy said. “They made it possible for us to come back.”

San Francisco 4, Arizona 1 -- At San Francisco, Barry Bonds hit his first home run in nearly a month and Jason Schmidt (5-2) won his fifth consecutive decision.

Edgardo Alfonzo also homered and singled twice for the Giants, who opened a six-game homestand against division rivals Arizona and Colorado by winning their season-high fourth in a row.

Bonds connected for his 11th home run this year and 669th of his career, hitting a 2-and-1 pitch from Casey Fossum (0-2) over the wall in center field, where a fan stuck his glove out trying to get the ball.

Center fielder Steve Finley immediately complained of interference.

The 39-year-old Bonds, who had not homered since April 29 against Florida, is third on the career home run list behind Hank Aaron (755) and Babe Ruth (714).

Houston 5, Chicago 0 -- Roy Oswalt (3-3) gave up three hits in seven innings at Houston for his first victory in more than a month and the Astros ended a losing streak at five.

Oswalt earned his first victory since beating Milwaukee, 2-0, April 16, ending a career-worst six-start winless streak. The right-hander has won his last five decisions against the Cubs.

Lance Berkman and Orlando Palmeiro homered for Houston, which moved within half a game of the second-place Cubs. Cincinnati leads the Central.

New York 5, Philadelphia 0 -- Steve Trachsel took a four-hitter into the seventh inning and the host Mets won their fourth in a row.

Mike Piazza homered against Eric Milton (5-1) and drove in two runs, and Cliff Floyd had a two-run double. The Mets began a stretch of 12 games against East rivals Philadelphia and Florida by moving above .500 (23-22) for the first time since April 15, when they were 5-4.

Trachsel (5-3) improved to 3-0 with a 1.36 earned-run average in May.

Montreal 3, Atlanta 1 -- Tony Batista, Juan Rivera and Endy Chavez homered, and Tomo Ohka (2-5) gave up one unearned run in seven innings at Montreal to help the Expos end a five-game losing streak.

The Expos broke through with two homers against Horacio Ramirez (2-4) in the sixth. Batista led off the inning with his third this season to tie the score, 1-1. One out later, Rivera hit an 0-and-2 pitch for his second homer of the year.

Atlanta pitchers had given up only 11 homers in their previous 22 road games.

Pittsburgh at St. Louis -- The game was postponed because of thunderstorms and will be made up Thursday.