Pirates’ Pitching Cures Padres’ Slump

There wasn’t anything wrong with the San Diego Padres’ offense that the Pittsburgh Pirates’ pitching staff couldn’t fix.

Archi Cianfrocco drove in three runs and the Padres matched their season high with 19 hits Thursday night in a 12-3 victory at Pittsburgh.

The Padres had scored only 15 runs in their previous seven games.

“Hitters are always going to have ups and downs over a season,” San Diego Manager Bruce Bochy said. “We feel like we’re going to score runs, even though we’ve struggled lately. I knew we would start to swing the bats better and tonight we did.”

Cianfrocco, Brian Johnson and Ken Caminiti each had three hits. Caminiti added his 22nd home run in support of Scott Sanders (5-4), who won for the fourth time in five starts.

Sanders worked seven innings, giving up three runs on six hits and two walks. He struck out seven, and added a run-scoring single.

Cianfrocco tripled off Pirate rookie Chris Peters (0-2) to open the second and scored on Johnson’s single. He also had a run-scoring single in the fifth and drove in two runs with another single in the sixth off Dave Wainhouse.

The Pirates, who have lost five of six and nine of 12, gave up two runs on wild pitches and one on a passed ball.

“We just didn’t pitch good and we didn’t play good,” Manager Jim Leyland said. “That was not a very good performance and that pretty much sums it up.”

Tony Gwynn was in the Padres’ starting lineup for the first time since July 1. Gwynn sat out 31 games because of a frayed right Achilles’ tendon. He left the game in the fourth, after he had batted three times. He had one hit, an infield single.

Philadelphia 4, Atlanta 1--Jim Eisenreich, who grounded into two double plays and struck out earlier, hit a two-run triple in the eighth inning off Greg Maddux that led the Phillies over the Braves at Atlanta.

The score was tied, 1-1, in the eighth when Ricky Otero led off with a bloop single to center and was sacrificed to second. Gregg Jefferies was walked intentionally before Todd Zeile flied out to right, Otero taking third.

Eisenreich then grounded the first pitch by Maddux over first base and into the right-field corner.

Maddux (10-10) gave up nine hits, three runs, walked three--two intentionally--and struck out five in eight innings. He is 0-3 against the Phillies this season. Maddux has given up only 12 earned runs in his last five starts--four losses and a no-decision--but the Braves have scored only nine runs in that period. Maddux’s last victory was July 15.

Houston 6, Montreal 2--Doug Drabek pitched a six-hitter for his first complete game in more than a year as the Astros defeated the Expos at Houston.

Drabek (6-7) carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning before Mark Grudzielanek got a two-out single off the glove of second baseman Craig Biggio.

After Grudzielanek reached base on an error by shortstop Ricky Gutierrez in the first, Drabek retired 17 consecutive batters and 21 of 23 through the first seven innings. The right-hander struck out seven and walked one in pitching his first complete game since a three-hitter against the Dodgers on July 25, 1995.

New York 3, Florida 0--Pete Harnisch (8-7) pitched eight shutout innings and Bernard Gilkey broke a scoreless tie in the eighth with his 26th homer to lead the Mets past the Marlins at Miami.

The losing pitcher was Kevin Brown (10-10), who came into the game with the lowest earned-run average in the majors but the second-worst run support. His ERA rose to 2.01 from 1.94.

After a one-out walk to Alvaro Espinoza in the eighth, the Mets knocked out Brown with consecutive homers by Gilkey and Todd Hundley, who hit his 35th.

San Francisco 5, St. Louis 3--Pinch-hitter Dave McCarty hit a two-run homer off Dennis Eckersley in the 10th inning, lifting the Giants over the Cardinals at St. Louis.

Rick Wilkins, who had a two-run double in the eighth, opened the 10th with a single off Rick Honeycutt (2-1). After a sacrifice, McCarty connected for his second pinch-hit homer of the season.

After Wilkins’ double made it 3-1, the Cardinals tied it with two runs in the eighth off Tim Scott.