NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Giants Go Overtime to Beat Padres, 11-9

Marty Barrett’s unexpected entry into the home run derby made the San Francisco Giants work a little harder for their first victory of the season.

Barrett’s pinch-hit, three-run homer off Dave Righetti with two out in the ninth inning completed San Diego’s comeback from a six-run deficit Thursday.

But Will Clark and Kevin Mitchell hit run-scoring singles in the 10th inning to give the Giants an 11-9 victory.

“It was going on for a while, wasn’t it?” Clark said. “It was an offensive day.”

Mitchell homered for the third consecutive game and can tie a record set by Willie Mays in 1971 for home runs in the first four games tonight at Houston.

Matt Williams and Robby Thompson also homered as San Francisco built an 8-2 lead.

But it still was 9-9 after Barrett connected against Righetti, making his first appearance since signing as a $10-million free agent.

“I wasn’t thinking that Marty would put a home run swing on the ball,” Righetti said. “At 3-and-2, I guess I threw it a little too pretty for him.”

Righetti, making his first appearance for the Giants, retired the first two batters in the ninth, but Jim Presley singled and Shawn Abner doubled him to third.

Barrett, in his first at-bat as a Padre, hit a full-count pitch over the left-field wall for his first home run since May 18, 1989.

Houston 4, Cincinnati 1--The Reds fell out of first place for the first time in more than a year and got nasty about it when Rob Dibble started a fracas at Cincinnati by throwing a fastball behind Eric Yelding in the ninth.

Yelding charged the mound, threw his helmet and hit Dibble in the left shoulder, and then tried to tackle him. Both benches emptied, but no punches connected. Dibble and Yelding were ejected.

Houston’s Pete Harnisch pitched five hitless innings but walked eight in his NL debut, walking Billy Hatcher with the bases loaded in the fourth to force home the Cincinnati run.

Karl Rhodes hit a two-run double in the fourth off Norm Charlton to break a scoreless tie and Steve Finley had a run-scoring single in the eighth to make it 3-1.

St. Louis 5, Chicago 4--Lee Smith retired Shawon Dunston on a fly ball with the bases loaded to end the game and the Cardinals held off the Cubs at Chicago.

The Cardinals led, 5-1, before Dunston hit a run-scoring single in the eighth. In the ninth, Mark Grace, who hit a solo homer earlier, hit a two-run single to make it close.

Ken Hill (1-0), who gave up four hits in six innings, took a 4-0 lead and a two-hitter into the sixth before Grace led off with a homer.

New York 6, Montreal 3--Wally Whitehurst celebrated his 27th birthday by pitching a career-high seven innings in his first victory as a starter, and the Mets beat the Expos at New York.

Whitehurst allowed five hits, struck out three and walked one.

Vince Coleman drove in two runs with a double, and Howard Johnson hit two sacrifice flies to tie a club record.