As Gwynn Rests, Teammates Fill In Nicely

The San Diego Padres are redefining the concept of depth on a baseball team. They kept six-time batting champion Tony Gwynn on the bench Saturday and still defeated the Pirates, 6-2, at Pittsburgh.

Pinch-hitter Archi Cianfrocco singled home the tiebreaking run in the eighth inning as the Padres won their third consecutive game.

While Gwynn rested, his substitute, Rickey Henderson, went four for five and had a hand in the winning rally.

Other moves that worked included the selection of Cianfrocco as a pinch-hitter and the late-inning insertions of Steve Finley and Craig Shipley. Finley had an RBI double and made an outstanding catch in center and Shipley went two for two after coming into the game in the seventh.

Cianfrocco put the Padres ahead, 3-2, by grounding a single to left field, his seventh hit in 15 at-bats since coming off the disabled list July 23.

Colorado 9, Atlanta 7--Andres Galarraga hit his second home run of the game in the 10th inning, sending Colorado past the Braves at Atlanta.

Galarraga hit his 33rd home run and Vinny Castilla followed with his 29th homer off Mark Wohlers (1-2). Galarraga, who set a career high for homers, drove in three runs and leads the NL with 107 RBIs.

Ellis Burks hit his 31st homer for the Rockies, who used three Atlanta errors to score three unearned runs in building a 7-0 lead.

Houston 3, Philadelphia 1--Kirt Manwaring’s two-run double highlighted the Astros’ three-run third inning and Mike Hampton pitched six strong innings at Philadelphia.

Hampton (9-7) scattered eight hits in winning his third consecutive start after a three-game losing streak.

St. Louis 7, San Francisco 1--Andy Benes pitched eight strong innings to win his ninth consecutive decision and Ray Lankford homered and had four RBIs as the Cardinals beat the Giants at St. Louis.

Lankford singled, doubled and homered in his first three at-bats to keep the Cardinals one game back of Houston in the NL Central.

Benes (12-8) gave up six hits, struck out a season-high nine, walked one and drove in his third run of the year with a line-drive single off the foot of William Van Landingham (6-13).

Chicago 3, Montreal 2--Brian McRae had three hits and raced home with the go-ahead run in the ninth inning, giving the Cubs a victory at Montreal.

Jose Hernandez was hit by a pitch from Mike Dyer (5-5) leading off the ninth and sacrificed to second. Hernandez was then trapped on McRae’s comebacker to Dyer and tagged out, with McRae hustling to second on the play.

Ryne Sandberg followed with a grounder to third baseman Andy Stankiewicz, who bobbled the ball for an error and threw late to first. McRae kept running and scored without a throw.

Florida 9, New York 6--Gary Sheffield went four for five with four RBIs and tied a career high by hitting his 33rd homer to help the Marlins beat the Mets at Miami.

Sheffield homered in the first inning to match his total with San Diego in 1992. He added a two-run single in the third, singled in the fifth, doubled home a run in the seventh and raised his batting average to .319.

Pat Rapp (6-12) won despite giving up nine hits and four runs in 5 1/3 innings.