Josh Willingham drove in a career-high five runs and the Florida Marlins played great defense plays to stifle the New York Mets in a 5-2 victory on Tuesday.
Ricky Nolasco (1-0) came off the disabled list to allow one run and six hits in five innings for the Marlins. He was 0-3 with a 19.73 ERA in four previous appearances against New York.
Willingham tripled with the bases loaded in the first inning against Mike Pelfrey (0-3) and hit a two-run homer off Aaron Heilman in the eighth after the Mets pulled within one.
Center fielder Alfredo Amezaga leaped high to catch Carlos Beltran's drive near the top of the wall in the fourth, and threw out Carlos Delgado at home to end that inning.
Former Mets prospect Henry Owens pitched the ninth for his third save and second in two days.
Phillies 6, Braves 4
At Atlanta, Cole Hamels bounced back from a rough start to pitch into the eighth inning and Philadelphia finally beat Atlanta.
Hamels (3-1) fell behind 3-0 in the first, giving up a two-run homer to Chipper Jones. He allowed only four more hits the rest of the way, sending the Phillies to their first win over Atlanta in five meetings this season.
Jones homered twice, adding a solo shot in the eighth that finished off Hamels, who went 7 1-3 innings, giving up five of his nine hits in the first. Tom Gordon pitched the ninth for his fifth save.
Reds 11, Astros 2
At Houston, Bronson Arroyo got his first win of the season and Adam Dunn hit a three-run homer to help Cincinnati beat struggling Houston, which has lost nine of 10.
In his sixth start, Arroyo (1-2) retired the first nine batters before walking Craig Biggio to start the fourth. Arroyo allowed three hits and one run with five strikeouts in seven innings.
Ken Griffey Jr., back in the lineup after missing three of the last four games because of a chest problem. He went 3-for-3, with a home run and two RBIs, for his first three-hit game of the season.
Brewers 12, Cardinals 2
At Milwaukee, Ben Sheets allowed two runs in six innings after leaving his last start with a groin injury, and Tony Graffanino capped a seven-run sixth inning with a three-run homer for Milwaukee.
Braden Looper (3-2) and St. Louis were cruising with a 2-0 lead in the fifth. But the Cardinals fell apart again. Milwaukee scored 11 runs over two innings and St. Louis lost its fourth straight.
Cubs 6, Pirates 5, 7 innings, suspended
At Pittsburgh, Alfonso Soriano hit his first homer for the Cubs and Cliff Floyd had a go-ahead, two-run shot during a four-run rally in the seventh inning that left Chicago leading Pittsburgh when the game was suspended because of rain.
After a delay of 2 hours, 18 minutes, the game was suspended with the Pirates about to bat in the seventh.
While the game lasted longer than the required five innings to become official, it was suspended because the Pirates had not yet batted in the seventh.
Padres 3, Nationals 0
At San Diego, slumping rookie Kevin Kouzmanoff drove in a run with his first big league triple and Chris Young and Trevor Hoffman combined on a three-hitter for San Diego.
Washington's Shawn Hill (2-3) and Micah Bowie held the Padres to four hits.
Kouzmanoff was batting just .110 (8-for-73) before tripling off the out-of-town scoreboard on the right-field wall to bring in Mike Cameron with one out in the seventh. Kouzmanoff then scored on a suicide squeeze by Oscar Robles.
RSS