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.
PHOTO: AP
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.
Dodgers 2, Diamondbacks 1
At Los Angeles, pinch-hitter Olmedo Saenz singled home the winning run with two outs in the ninth inning and Los Angeles snapped Arizona's six-game winning streak.
Rafael Furcal led off the ninth with a single against Brandon Lyon (2-1), then advanced to third on Juan Pierre's sacrifice and Wilson Valdez's groundout. Jeff Kent was intentionally walked in front of Saenz, who drove a 1-1 pitch up the middle while batting for winning pitcher Takashi Saito (1-0).
Rockies 9, Giants 7
At San Francisco, Matt Holliday homered and hit a three-run double after being moved from fifth to third in the lineup, and Colorado beat San Francisco.
Alberto Arias (1-0) threw 3 2-3 scoreless innings of relief to win his major league debut, and Brian Fuentes earned his fifth save.
Phil Hughes was working on a no-hitter in the seventh inning of his second major league start when a hamstring injury cost him a chance to make history.
The Yankees' prized prospect is expected to miss four to six weeks, a sour end to an otherwise encouraging night for the last-place club. New York responded to criticism from owner George Steinbrenner in a big way on Tuesday with a 10-1 rout of the Texas Rangers.
Indians 12, Blue Jays 4
At Cleveland, rocked for three homers in the first inning, C.C. Sabathia buckled down to stay unbeaten and Jhonny Peralta had a career-high five RBIs for the hosts.
After enduring a season-opening month of snow, postponements and travel, Cleveland began May with a comeback victory, scoring nine consecutive runs to win for the eighth time in nine games.
Athletics 5, Red Sox 4
At Boston, Dan Johnson doubled home the winning run in the 10th inning after Jonathan Papelbon had his first blown save opportunity of the season and Oakland stopped surging Boston.
The Red Sox had won four of five games and began the day with the best record in baseball but wasted a 4-2 lead and another strong performance by Curt Schilling.
Tigers 5, Orioles 4
At Detroit, pinch-hitter Sean Casey hit a tiebreaking single with one out in the eighth inning to lift the Detroit.
Craig Monroe also homered for Detroit and Placido Polanco 4-for-5 with two RBIs. The Tigers rallied for two runs in the eighth against Danys Baez (0-1).
Twins 9, Devil Rays 1
At St. Petersburg, Florida, Sidney Ponson pitched seven impressive innings and Michael Cuddyer drove in two runs for Minnesota before leaving with an injury.
Ponson (2-3) gave up five hits. Both of his wins this season have come against the Devil Rays.
Angels 7, Royals 5
At Kansas City, Missouri, Vladimir Guerrero hit a first-inning grand slam and surging Los Angeles held on to beat reeling Kansas for the Angeles' 10th victory in 12 games.
The first three Angels hitters singled on Zack Greinke's first seven pitches to load the bases. Greinke quickly went to 3-0 on Guerrero. Then after a called strike, the seven-time All-Star hit the next pitch sailing 130m over the fence in left-center for his fifth grand slam.
Mariners 5, White Sox 2
At Seattle, Richie Sexson hit a two-run home run and Jarrod Washburn allowed two singles and two solo home runs in seven innings to lead Seattle past Chicago for its sixth victory in seven games.
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