Snow Has Winning Hit for the Giants

J.T. Snow singled in the winning run with one out in the ninth inning to lead the San Francisco Giants to their sixth straight victory, 5-4, over the Montreal Expos on Tuesday night at San Francisco in a game Giant ace Jason Schmidt had to leave because of a groin injury.

Barry Bonds homered twice and Schmidt pitched eight strong innings, but his bullpen blew his chance to become the majors’ first 16-game winner.

Snow singled to right off Luis Ayala (4-9) and right fielder Juan Rivera tried to throw out pinch-runner Ricky Ledee at the plate, but the ball sailed into the stands behind home plate.

Kirk Rueter, Monday’s starter, hit a pinch-hit bunt single in the ninth -- his second career pinch-hit appearance -- then Ledee ran for him.

Dustin Hermanson (5-5) blew his first save in five chances, but earned the win. He came on in relief of Scott Eyre with one out in the top of the ninth.

Eyre was called in to relieve Schmidt, who left with a right groin injury after coming out to start the ninth.

Bonds hit a solo homer leading off the second and a two-run shot in the fourth, giving the 40-year-old slugger 33 homers this season and 691 for his career. It was his third multihomer game of the year and 67th of his career, tying him with Mark McGwire for second on the career list behind Babe Ruth (72). Sun-Woo Kim became the 408th pitcher to allow a homer to Bonds.

*

San Diego 11, Atlanta 6 -- Jake Peavy struck out nine in seven innings and Freddy Guzman got a hit, scored a run and had an RBI in his major league debut at San Diego.

Peavy (9-3) gave up two hits -- a second-inning single by Andruw Jones and a fourth-inning home run by Chipper Jones that extended his streak of games with home runs to five. Peavy walked none and retired his final 10 batters.

Guzman, recalled before the game from triple-A Portland after the Padres released reliever Rod Beck, hit leadoff. He singled in his first major league at-bat and scored, then walked with the bases loaded later in the five-run first, getting his first RBI. Jaret Wright (11-6) forced in a pair of runs with bases-loaded walks and didn’t make it out of the first inning.

Brian Giles and Phil Nevin hit back-to-back homers in the fourth, the first consecutive homers for the Padres this season, and Ramon Hernandez drove in three runs.

*

St. Louis 7, Cincinnati 2 -- Tony Womack scored the go-ahead run on a bases-loaded walk from Danny Graves in the eighth inning and Larry Walker hit the next pitch for a grand slam at St. Louis.

The NL Central leaders are 13-2 against the Reds this season and will try to complete a three-game sweep today. St. Louis opened a 15-game lead over second-place Chicago -- the Cardinals’ largest advantage since winning the 1968 pennant.

Walker has three homers in nine games since the Cardinals acquired him from Colorado.

*

Milwaukee 3, Chicago 1 -- Victor Santos gave up one run in 6 1/3 innings at Milwaukee to win for the first time since beating Chicago on July 16.

Bill Hall had a two-run triple for last-place Milwaukee, which was helped by Nomar Garciaparra’s error and improved to 7-5 against the Cubs this season.

Santos (10-8), who had lost five straight starts, struck out six, walked one and gave up five hits.

*

Houston 5, Philadelphia 0 -- Roy Oswalt and two relievers combined on a five-hitter at Philadelphia.

Oswalt (13-8) gave up five hits, struck out seven and walked two in 7 2/3 innings to win his fifth straight decision. Mike Gallo got one out in the eighth, and Dan Miceli pitched a perfect ninth for the Astros’ third win in nine games -- and their 10th shutout this season.

The Phillies were shut out for the fourth time and fell to 1-7 on their current homestand.

At 59-60, Philadelphia is under .500 for the first time since May 7.

*

Pittsburgh 7, Arizona 1 -- Craig Wilson and Ty Wigginton each hit home runs at Phoenix to lead the Pirates to their fourth straight win.

Luis Terrero hit his first major league homer for the Diamondbacks, who lost their sixth straight at home and have dropped 16 of 17 overall. Arizona is 7-35 under interim Manager Al Pedrique.

*

Colorado 6, New York 4 -- Jason Jennings overcame a slow start to pitch seven solid innings and Matt Holliday drove in the go-ahead run with a solo homer in the sixth inning at Denver.