Reds Trip Up Diamondbacks in the Ninth

The Cincinnati Reds waited until their final at-bat in their return home to unpack their road magic.

Eddie Taubensee’s soft two-run double tied the score and Aaron Boone later singled as the Reds rallied in the ninth to beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 5-4, Tuesday night at Cincinnati for their eighth consecutive victory. The first seven came on the road.

The pulsating finish inspired the Reds to embrace on the field and left fans honking their horns in celebration as they drove away from Cinergy Field, where there had been little to cheer.

“It’s the same thing we were doing on the road,” Manager Jack McKeon said. “We just did it a little bit later and gave the fans a good show.”

The Diamondbacks took advantage of Steve Avery’s career-high nine walks in seven innings to build a 4-2 lead heading into the ninth.

Milwaukee 17, Chicago 6--Marquis Grissom drove in a career-high six runs for the Brewers at Chicago to offset Sammy Sosa’s major league-leading 29th home run.

Grissom hit a sacrifice fly in a four-run first inning, a two-run homer in the third, a run-scoring single in the fourth and a two-run homer in the sixth.

Milwaukee’s 17 runs and 21 hits both were season highs.

In the sixth, Sosa homered in his third consecutive game to pull the Cubs within 13-5. One out later, Glenallen Hill followed with his second homer of the game and 11th this season, but the Cubs lost for the 14th time in their last 18.

Montreal 6, Atlanta 5--Vladimir Guerrero’s three-run homer with two out in the bottom of the ninth inning capped a five-run rally at Montreal. It was Guerrero’s 15th homer.

Atlanta starter John Smoltz had a run-scoring single before leaving after five innings because of stiffness in his right elbow. Smoltz is 3-1 in six starts since returning from the disabled list on June 1 after suffering an inflamed right elbow.

New York 5, Florida 1--Orel Hershiser came within two outs of pitching his first shutout in more than four years to lead the Mets at Miami.

Hershiser (8-5) was on his way to his first shutout since June 5, 1995, when he gave up a leadoff triple to Alex Gonzalez in the ninth. Bruce Aven followed with a run-scoring groundout. Hershiser was replaced after giving up a double to Kevin Orie.

Houston 5, St. Louis 4--Craig Biggio’s tiebreaking, two-out single in the eighth inning at Houston helped the Astros end a losing streak at four games.

The Cardinals’ Joe McEwing had two hits to extend his hitting streak to 20 games.

Philadelphia 7, Pittsburgh 4--Curt Schilling (11-4) gave up four hits, two of them home runs, and struck out eight in eight innings at Pittsburgh to win his third game in a row for the Phillies.

The Pirates scored two runs in the ninth and had the bases loaded against Wayne Gomes, but Freddy Garcia hit into a double play to end the game.