Justice Dislocates Shoulder Swinging Bat

David Justice’s swing was as hard as Denny Neagle’s pitch was soft, and the result could cost the Atlanta Braves much more than a 3-0 loss to Pittsburgh on Wednesday night at Atlanta.

Justice, batting .321 with six homers and 25 runs batted in, dislocated his right shoulder while swinging at a Neagle changeup in the second inning.

“It was definitely one of the best changeups I’ve thrown in a while,” said Neagle (5-1), who won his fifth consecutive decision. “When he dropped to his knees and was grimacing on the ground, I knew he did something. I didn’t realized he had dislocated his shoulder, though.”

Justice was immediately put on the disabled list, and Atlanta Manager Bobby Cox didn’t mince words about the prognosis. Justice will be out at least a month, Cox said, and if an operation is necessary, he could be sidelined the rest of the season.

“You can rehab the thing and it will pop out on occasion or go ahead and tighten it . . . but then you’re talking about the whole year,” Cox said.

Justice’s importance to the Braves was demonstrated in Cox’s plans to use two players--right-handed hitting Jerome Walton and left-handed hitting Dwight Smith--to replace him.

“We have the people here if they’re healthy,” Cox said, referring to Walton’s nagging groin injury.

Pittsburgh ended a six-game losing streak behind Neagle’s four-hit pitching over seven innings. It was the fifth time this season Atlanta has been shut out.

The Braves were shut out only four times all last season.

Steve Avery (4-3) gave up all three runs and four hits in seven innings for the Braves, who have lost only two of 11 games.

San Diego 4, New York 3--Tony Gwynn’s two-out single off John Franco drove in Ricky Henderson with the winning run in the 10th inning at San Diego.

Henderson had reached on a fielder’s choice and moved to third base on Steve Finley’s single.

It was San Diego’s fourth win in a row.

St. Louis 6, Florida 0--Todd Stottlemyre (3-2) struck out 13 and pitched a four-hitter at Miami to end the Marlins’ winning streak at nine games.

Mark Sweeney homered and scored twice for the Cardinals, who won for only the sixth time in the past 23 games.

Philadelphia 7, San Francisco 6--Todd Zeile led off the bottom of the 10th inning with his second home run of the game for the Phillies, who won at home.

Philadelphia had tied the score, 6-6, on Kevin Stocker’s two-run triple in the eighth inning against reliever Rod Beck (0-1), who came in with nine saves in nine opportunities.

Houston 7, Chicago 5--Derek Bell hit a two-run double and Sean Berry followed with a two-run homer to highlight a five-run third inning for the Astros in a victory at Chicago.