Tuesday, September 18, 2001
Baseball roundup - Monday's games
Rolen helps Phillies tighten NL East
By The Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA — Scott Rolen hit two home runs off Greg Maddux (17-9) and the Philadelphia Phillies came back from baseball's six-day break to beat the Atlanta Braves 5-2 Monday night and tighten the NL East race.
The Phillies won the opener of a four-game series and closed within two and a half games of Atlanta.
The Braves had won six of seven before the terrorist attacks forced the majors to postpone games.
The game began with fans chanting “USA! USA!” and ended with them cheering. But it took only three batters for Phillies fans to get back in form: They booed after Chipper Jones hit a home run off Robert Person in the first inning.
Person (15-6) won his sixth straight decision. He allowed two runs and six hits in improving to 11-1 since losing to the New York Mets on June 5.
Jose Mesa worked the ninth for his 37th save in 40 chances.
Mets 4, Pirates 1
PITTSBURGH — Rey Ordonez's RBI single off Mike Fetters (3-2) started a three-run ninth inning, and the Mets returned from their trying week off and beat Pittsburgh.
Ordonez's hit and pinch-hitter Mark Johnson's two-run double made a winner of John Franco (6-2), a native New Yorker and the Mets player probably most personally affected by last week's terrorist attacks.
Wearing caps honoring the New York firefighters, police and rescue workers, plus American flags on their jerseys and hats, the Mets won for the 18th time in 23 games.
Armando Benitez finished up for his 39th save. Franco, in the Mets' dugout, got several pats on the back after the final out.
Cardinals 2, Brewers 1
ST. LOUIS — Coming off his no-hitter, rookie Bud Smith (4-2) allowed only three hits in seven innings as St. Louis beat Milwaukee.
The 21-year-old Smith held San Diego hitless Sept. 3. He skipped a start after throwing 134 pitches in that outing, then waited for baseball to resume play after Tuesday's terrorist attacks.
Albert Pujols drove in the go-ahead run with a single in the sixth inning as the Cardinals won for the seventh time in eight games and pulled into a tie with idle San Francisco for the wild card lead.
St. Louis is 4 1/2 games behind NL Central-leading Houston.
Milwaukee starter Ruben Quevedo (4-3) lasted seven innings, giving up two runs on six hits.
Pujols' RBI was his 112th, tying the team rookie record set in 1953 by Ray Jablonski.
Steve Kline got four outs for his eighth save.
Marlins 10, Expos 6
MONTREAL — Luis Castillo's two-run triple highlighted an eight-run sixth inning as Florida beat Montreal before the smallest Olympic Stadium crowd of the season.
An announced crowd of 3,013 — in fact, no more than 1,000 fans were actually on hand — hushed to a silence for pregame ceremonies to honor the victims of last Tuesday's terrorist attacks.
The crowd was silenced once again in the fifth inning when Expos starter Javier Vazquez was struck flush on the front of his batting helmet by a pitch from Ryan Dempster. Vazquez was taken to the hospital for X-rays.
Trailing 6-0 after Montreal scored six times in the fifth, Florida matched a team record in its next at-bat with the seventh eight-run inning in club history.
Ricky Bones (4-4) got the win.
Guillermo Mota (1-2) took the loss.
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Baseball roundup - Monday's games
