Clemens Finally Gets Some Help

Roger Clemens struck out a season-high 10 in his 331st victory, pitching the host Houston Astros past the San Francisco Giants, 4-1, Saturday night.

Lance Berkman hit his first home run this season after a two-run homer by Craig Biggio in the sixth inning, helping the Astros end a four-game skid with their second victory in 12 games.

Clemens (3-1) gave up one run and five hits in eight innings, his longest outing this season. He has given up only seven runs in eight starts for a 1.11 earned-run average.

The Astros scored only 11 runs for Clemens in his first seven starts, and six of those games were decided by one run.

“When Biggio hit that home run and Berkman hit his, there was a big sigh of relief. We all felt it on the bench,” Manager Phil Garner said.

It was the 109th time Clemens has struck out 10 or more batters, third on the all-time list behind Nolan Ryan and Randy Johnson. The last time Clemens had done it had been Sept. 24, when he struck out 12 at Milwaukee.

The last time Clemens had pitched eight innings had been Sept. 19, also against Milwaukee.

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St. Louis 7, New York 6 -- Larry Walker pinch-hit in the eighth inning and had a go-ahead sacrifice fly against Roberto Hernandez at New York.

Kaz Matsui chased Mark Mulder with a tying three-run triple in a four-run sixth inning, but the Mets failed to hold a 6-5 lead in the eighth.

Abraham Nunez walked against Hernandez (2-1) leading off the inning, Albert Pujols blooped a single to left field and Jim Edmonds doubled home the tying run.

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Cincinnati 12, Philadelphia 4 -- Ken Griffey Jr. hit a go-ahead three-run homer, and Adam Dunn hit a solo homer in a six-run seventh inning at Philadelphia.

Griffey also doubled and drove in four runs. The Reds had a season-high eight extra-base hits.

Bobby Abreu homered for the sixth time in seven games for the Phillies, who have lost four of five.

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San Diego 2, Florida 1 -- Jake Peavy (3-0) held the Marlins to one run and five hits in seven innings at San Diego, and the Padres won for the 12th time in 15 games.

Trevor Hoffman threw four pitches in a perfect ninth inning for his 404th save.

The Padres took a 2-0 lead in the second inning against Al Leiter (1-4), who gave up two runs and three hits in six innings.

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Pittsburgh 2, Milwaukee 0 -- Mark Redman (2-3) pitched his first career shutout and Jose Castillo’s two-run double in the fifth inning proved the difference at Pittsburgh.

The Pirates, who won for the eighth time in 11 games, left the bases loaded in each of the first three innings before Castillo chased starter Victor Santos (1-3) with his double.

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Arizona 10, Colorado 4 -- Brandon Webb struck out seven in eight innings and Chris Snyder drove in three runs for the Diamondbacks at Denver.

Webb (5-0) had his sinkerball working, getting 13 groundouts on the way to becoming the National League’s fifth five-game winner.

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Washington 4, Chicago 3 -- Livan Hernandez (6-2) pitched 6 1/3 innings before leaving because of a knee injury and Vinny Castilla had a two-run single at Washington, where the start of the game was delayed for 2 hours 40 minutes because of thunderstorms, lightning and heavy rain.

Carlos Zambrano (3-2) retired the first nine batters he faced before running into trouble in the fourth inning and leaving because of tightness in his right forearm.

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Washington acquired Marlon Byrd from Philadelphia in exchange for Endy Chavez in a swap of former starting center fielders.