Jennings’ Homer Sparks Rockies

Jason Jennings of the Colorado Rockies is no slouch with the bat. And now he has one of the biggest hits of his career.

Jennings lined a game-tying two-run homer off Greg Maddux in the Rockies’ 4-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs Saturday at Wrigley Field.

“He left it out over the plate and I was able to take advantage of it,” said Jennings, who entered this season with a career average of .267.

A standout hitter and pitcher at Baylor, Jennings knows any offense he adds can be a plus, as it was Saturday when he ended a personal three-game losing streak.

“I always work on my hitting,” he said. “I just need to get up there and see it and swing hard. That’s what I did all through high school and college coming up, so why change? See it and hit it.”

Maddux (2-3) had retired 12 in a row and was leading, 3-1, in the fifth before he gave up a two-out single to Brad Hawpe. Jennings then drove an 0-1 pitch over the wall in right for his second career homer. He was one for 12 this season before the homer.

“He can hit, I knew that two years ago when he started. I mean that wasn’t a surprise,” Maddux said. “Trust me. I knew that for a while. It’s not a secret. There are a couple of pitchers out there that can flat-out rake and you know about them.”

After Jennings’ two-out homer tied it in the fifth, the Rockies took the lead an inning later when Royce Clayton beat out a bunt, stole second and scored on a two-out single by Jeromy Burnitz.

Maddux, who gave up seven hits and four runs in seven innings, still needs nine wins to reach 300 for his career. He has given up 10 homers this season.

“With the exception of the first game here I pitched, I’m kind of happy with how I’ve thrown the ball,” Maddux said. “The results stink, but I feel OK with how I’m throwing it.”

Jennings (2-2), the 2002 NL rookie of the year, gave up back-to-back homers to Sammy Sosa and Moises Alou in the first inning, and a solo shot to Todd Walker in the third. But he settled down and yielded only five hits in six innings.

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Cincinnati 5, San Francisco 3 -- Ken Griffey Jr. homered twice, and Barry Larkin hit a tiebreaking two-run shot, powering the Reds at Cincinnati.

Griffey hit two solo homers, giving him three in three days, six for the season and 487 for his career. Larkin broke a fifth-inning tie with a two-run shot for his first homer since Aug. 1.

Paul Wilson (4-0) extended the best start of his career by giving up only two runs in seven innings -- solo homers by Jeffrey Hammonds and J.T. Snow.

The Reds again pitched very carefully to Barry Bonds. He flied out three times and drew his 49th walk, the most in the majors.

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Montreal 2, St. Louis 0 -- Tomo Ohka and Rocky Biddle combined on a three-hitter, and Jose Vidro homered and drove in two runs at Montreal to lead the Expos to their season-high third straight win.

Ohka (1-5), who lost his first five starts of the season, yielded Albert Pujols’ double in the fourth and singles to Hector Luna in the fifth and eighth for his first complete game of the season. He struck out six and walked one.

Biddle pitched a perfect ninth for his seventh save in as many opportunities to complete Montreal’s third shutout of the season.

The Expos have won five of six after losing 20 of their first 25 games. Despite the win, they are still off to a franchise-worst 10-21 start, matching the 1999 team.

Rookie Terrmel Sledge, a former Long Beach State star, went two for three to extend his hitting streak to 10 games. He’s batting .533 (16 for 30) during the streak, and has raised his average to .266 since beginning the season -- and his career -- with one hit in his first 34 at-bats (.030).

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Milwaukee 6, New York 4 -- Lyle Overbay had three hits, including a home run for the second game in a row, and drove in four runs to lead the Brewers over the Mets at New York.

Overbay extended his hitting streak to 10 games and is batting .500 (19 for 38) with 17 RBIs over that stretch. He had one hit more than the Mets, who made the most they could from two hits and nine walks.

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San Diego 6, Florida 3 -- Sean Burroughs hit a go-ahead single in the 10th inning to help the Padres win at Miami.

Miguel Ojeda led off with a broken-bat single to left, and Franklyn Gracesqui (0-1) hit Khalil Greene with a pitch. Kerry Robinson’s bunt single loaded the bases, and Burroughs singled for a 4-3 lead. Mark Loretta followed with an RBI single, and another run scored when left fielder Jeff Conine bobbled the ball.

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Atlanta 5, Houston 4 -- Andruw Jones hit a 10th-inning homer to give the Braves the victory over the Astros, whose manager, bench coach and starting pitcher were ejected in Atlanta.

The Braves rallied in both the eighth and ninth, then won it when Jones, mired in a one-for-21 slump, hit a two-out, opposite-field homer off Ricky Stone (1-1) that barely cleared the right-field wall.

Jesse Garcia was in the middle of both comebacks, which helped the Braves stop a three-game losing streak. First, he convinced umpires he had been grazed on the helmet with a pitch, sparking a two-run eighth that tied the score at 3-3.

The disputed call led to the ejection of Astro Manager Jimy Williams. Bench coach John Tamargo and pitcher Roy Oswalt also were ejected before the inning was over.

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Philadelphia 8, Arizona 7 -- Tomas Perez hit a three-run homer at Phoenix to help the Phillies beat the Diamondbacks for the fourth time in five tries this season. Reliever Ryan Madson set a Philadelphia record for consecutive innings without yielding an earned run at 21.

Madson broke the record of 20 -- set by Marty Bystrom in 1980 -- with a scoreless sixth and seventh, but the streak ended in the eighth.