Brian Giles' tiebreaking single with two outs in the top of the 10th inning gave San Diego a 5-4 victory over San Francisco on Wednesday and snapped the Padres' four-game losing streak.
The first-place Padres rallied to avoid a three-game sweep and extended their lead over San Francisco to six games in the National League West.
Rudy Seanez (7-1) pitched a scoreless ninth for the victory. Trevor Hoffman got his 35th straight save and 38th overall as the Padres won despite stranding 15 runners.
Pedro Feliz hit a go-ahead, two-run double with two outs in the eighth for the Giants, but pinch-hitter Sean Burroughs tied it in the ninth with a two-out, two-run double off Armando Benitez.
Giles singled against LaTroy Hawkins (2-7) for his third hit of the game.
Barry Bonds entered as a pinch-hitter against Akinori Otsuka with two runners on in the eighth and struck out looking.
Pirates 5, Cardinals 3
At St. Louis, Brad Eldred hit two solo shots for his first multihomer game and Pittsburgh's bullpen worked 7 1-3 innings after Oliver Perez was ejected, keeping St. Louis' magic number for clinching the NL Central at two.
The Pirates won for only the fourth time in 19 games and denied the Cardinals a chance to clinch a tie for the division title at home. St. Louis completed a 6-4 homestand and begans a 10-game road trip yesterday.
Jason Bay homered, doubled and drove in two runs off Jason Marquis (12-14) for the Pirates, who finished 4-12 against the Cardinals this season.
Eldred homered leading off the second and hit his ninth in the sixth for a 4-1 lead.
Perez was ejected with two outs in the second inning after hitting Hector Luna in the left leg with a pitch.
Ryan Vogelsong (2-1) allowed a run in 2 1-3 innings for the win. Mike Gonzalez, the Pirates' seventh pitcher, got two outs for his second save.
Other games
At Philadelphia, the Phillies beat the Braves 12-4, while the Nationals defeated the Mets 6-3 at New York. The Reds defeated the Cubs 7-4 over 11 innings at Chicago, the Rockies beat the Dodgers 8-7 at Los Angeles, while the Diamondbacks beat the Brewers 2-1 at Phoenix.
Kylian Mbappe struck from the penalty spot as Real Madrid beat a dogged CA Osasuna 1-0 on Tuesday to make a winning start in Spanish La Liga under new coach Xabi Alonso. The France striker, last season’s European Golden Shoe winner, scored early in the second half, after he was fouled in the area by Osasuna defender Juan Cruz. It was enough to seal the points in Alonso’s first game in charge at the Santiago Bernabeu, with Madrid now unbeaten in their opening fixture of a league campaign since 2008. “You can see that Kylian wants to do even more
STUMBLE: World No. 2 Coco Gauff confidently won her first set against seventh-seed Italian Jasmine Paolini before being overcome in the second and third sets World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and second-ranked Coco Gauff were sent crashing out of the ATP-WTA Cincinnati Open on Friday, while Carlos Alcaraz fought off a fierce challenge from Andrey Rublev to reach the semi-finals. Top seed and defending champion Sabalenka had no answer for Elena Rybakina, falling to the 2022 Wimbledon champion 6-1, 6-4. Reigning French Open champion Gauff had 16 double faults in a 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 exit at the hands of seventh-seeded Italian Jasmine Paolini. Spain’s second-ranked Alcaraz had his difficulties, but he broke Rublev in the final game of a tense duel to emerge a 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 winner
Spanish champions Barcelona opened their Spanish La Liga campaign on Saturday with an island cruise as they played almost an hour against nine men on their way to a 3-0 victory in RCD Mallorca. Barcelona’s second-half stroll did not please coach Hansi Flick. “They’re three important points, but I didn’t like the match,” he told broadcaster Movistar. “After going two goals up and following Mallorca’s two red cards, I think the team only gave 50 percent, and I didn’t like that,” he said. “Playing at 50 or 60 per cent is not possible against nine players.” Two of Barcelona’s Ballon
Manchester City signaled their intent to take back the English Premier League title as Erling Haaland struck twice in a 4-0 win at Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday to begin their campaign. After four consecutive titles, City finished a distant third last season as Pep Guardiola’s men failed to win any trophy for the first time in eight years. New signings Tijjani Reijnders, who was the star of the show at Molineux, and Rayan Cherki were also on target to give Guardiola hope his side would be back in the title race this season. “We knew he is a top signing
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