NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Mitchell’s Shot Drops the Giants

Kevin Mitchell felt right at home sending one over the Candlestick Park fence on Sunday.

Mitchell, who spent four-plus seasons with the San Francisco Giants, hit a solo home run in the 10th inning and the Cincinnati Reds went on to record a 9-6 victory over the Giants, who dropped back into a first-place tie with the Dodgers in the National League West.

Mitchell hit his 11th home run of the season with one out off Rod Beck (1-1) to break a 6-6 tie and give another former Giant, reliever Jeff Brantley, the victory.

After Mitchell’s homer, Reggie Sanders followed with a double to left, then Bret Boone hit a ball to the right field corner that first base umpire Mark Hirschbeck ruled a home run.

The Giants argued and replays showed the ball did go foul.

The Reds’ victory was their first against the Giants after losing 10 in a row.

Brantley (2-1), dropped by the Giants after last season, was booed by Candlestick Park fans when he came on to pitch. But he went the final two innings for the victory.

Philadelphia 1, Pittsburgh 0--The Phillies’ Shawn Boskie, formerly of the Chicago Cubs, snapped an eight-game losing streak against the Pirates by limiting them to four hits, all singles, in six innings at Philadelphia.

Jon Lieber, making his major league debut, held the Phillies to five hits in six innings. But the Pirates stranded 13 baserunners as Philadelphia completed a four-game sweep.

Atlanta 6, New York 1--The Braves, coming off an 11-4 loss on Saturday, got eight solid innings from Steve Avery and two homers from Javier Lopez to beat the Mets at New York.

Avery (4-1) struck out a season-high nine and gave up five hits in winning his third consecutive game.

Montreal 9, St. Louis 8--Lenny Webster drove in the winning run as the Expos rallied for four in the ninth to beat the Cardinals at Montreal.

Marquis Grissom and Mike Lansing had two-run homers and drove in three runs each for the Expos, who had 13 hits.

Tom Pagnozzi had one of four St. Louis homers--his first this season--and drove in three runs as the Cardinals had a season-high 16 hits.

Florida 3, Chicago 0--Chris Hammond extended his scoreless streak to a club-record 22 innings and helped himself with a double and a suicide squeeze to lead the Marlins at Chicago.

Colorado 4, Houston 0--Andres Galarraga hit his 13th home run and Armando Reynoso and two relievers combined for the shutout at Houston.

The Rockies, after winning two of the three games in this series, are now 13-2 against the Astros.