NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Bonds Is Still Hitting Homers as Pirates Win

Barry Bonds continued his drive toward a second most-valuable-player award Tuesday night with his eighth home run in 45 at-bats to help the Pirates beat the Chicago Cubs, 5-2, at Pittsburgh and stay four games ahead of second-place Montreal in the East.

The homer was Bonds’ fifth in 19 at-bats over eight games and seventh in 26 at-bats over 11 games. So far this month, the 1990 MVP has reached base 25 times in 36 appearances, going 10 for 21 with 15 walks. Tuesday’s homer was his 28th of the season.

He jump-started the Pirates in the first inning after Andy Van Slyke’s two-out single with his 28th homer off Shawn Boskie (5-8). Boskie was starting in place of Mike Harkey, who underwent knee surgery Monday.

Pittsburgh’s Doug Drabek (12-10) improved to 14-7 against the Cubs by pitching a three-hitter for his eighth complete game of the season. Drabek has pitched at least eight innings in 12 of his last 14 starts.

“That was a huge game because we had no Roger Mason, no Stan Belinda, no Denny Neagle,” Pittsburgh Manager Jim Leyland said of his bullpen, depleted after five pitchers were used Sunday and six Monday.

San Francisco 6, San Diego 5--Robby Thompson scored on a wild pitch in the 16th inning to give the Giants the victory at San Francisco. Thompson led off the 16th with a bloop single. He moved to third when Padre reliever Gene Harris threw wildly to second to try to force him after Kirt Manwaring had bunted. Harris’ wild pitch ended it.

Montreal 6, St. Louis 1--Larry Walker broke open a 3-1 game with a three-run homer in the seventh inning at Montreal as the Expos ended a three-game losing streak.

The Expos learned before the game that Delino DeShields will be sidelined at least 10 days because of a rib cage injury. Todd Haney was recalled from triple-A Indianapolis.

Philadelphia 2, New York 1--Mickey Morandini’s run-scoring grounder in the eighth inning broke a 1-1 tie at Philadelphia.

Dwight Gooden took the loss to drop to 8-12, but walked only one and pitched his first complete game of the season.

Houston 2, Cincinnati 0--Andujar Cedeno broke up Chris Hammond’s no-hitter in the sixth inning and then broke a scoreless tie his next at-bat with a double to lead the Astros at Houston.