Millwood Delivers for Braves

Kevin Millwood loved taking his turn in the rotation Wednesday night.

“Starting the game, I knew we had a chance to pick up a full game in the standings,” he said. “It meant a lot more than getting one in May or June.”

Chipper Jones had two run-scoring singles and Millwood gave up only four hits in eight innings to lead the Braves past the slumping Arizona Diamondbacks, 7-1, at Atlanta.

The Braves, who have won three of four, increased their National League East lead to two games over the second-place New York Mets.

Arizona, which entered Wednesday six games behind NL West-leading San Francisco, has lost four of five. Armando Reynoso (10-10) lost his third consecutive start and dropped to 0-9 against the Braves, giving up three runs and four hits in seven innings.

“I pitched a good game,” Reynoso said. “Unfortunately, we couldn’t score any runs.”

The crowd of 25,529 was the smallest at Turner Field, which opened in 1997.

Pitching in a cold drizzle, Millwood (9-10) retired 14 in a row after giving up a leadoff double to Greg Colbrunn in the fourth.

San Francisco 5, Philadelphia 4--Ellis Burks hit an infield single in the eighth inning and the Giants won their eighth in a row by beating the Phillies at San Francisco.

The Giants took a season-high 7 1/2-game lead in the NL West and matched their longest winning string of the year.

Philadelphia lost its eighth in a row.

Vicente Padilla (3-5) walked the bases loaded and Burks hit a ball into the hole. Third baseman Scott Rolen fielded the ball but had no chance to get an out as Marvin Benard came home with the go-ahead run.

Montreal 7, St. Louis 2--Dustin Hermanson Hermanson, backed by Vladimir Guerrero’s two home runs at St. Louis, helped the Expos end the Cardinals’ six-game winning streak.

“Every team is the same to me, you have to get pumped up for everybody,” said Hermanson (11-12). “The Cardinals are a great team and I love to pitch here, but you have to get up for every team no matter who it is or no matter how badly your team is playing.”

Houston 13, Florida 5--Chris Truby, making a case to start at third base for the Astros next season, went three for five with a two-run homer and a triple against the Marlins at Houston.

Truby has been up from the minors since Ken Caminiti had wrist surgery June 16. Truby is batting .272 with eight homers and 38 runs batted in.

Chicago 8, Colorado 5--Sammy Sosa hit his major league-leading 46th home run and the Cubs got a tiebreaking triple in the 11th inning from Mark Grace to beat the Rockies at Denver and stop a six-game losing streak.

Sosa, three for five with three RBIs, singled off Gabe White (9-2) leading of the 11th and scored on Grace’s triple past Juan Pierre in center. Julio Zuleta, called up Tuesday from triple-A Iowa, followed with a two-run homer.

Colorado’s Todd Helton was hitless in five at-bats, dropping his major league-leading batting average to .384.

San Diego 7, Milwaukee 6--Woody Williams was shaky on the mound but as usual he contributed at the plate, going three for four with an RBI, as the Padres beat the Brewers at San Diego.