BASEBALL - KEVIN BROWN LOWERS ERA AS MARLINS BEAT REDS .
CINCINNATI 1996-08-31
Major league ERA leader Kevin Brown threw an eight-hitter and Devon White 's RBI double snapped a fifth-inning tie as the Florida Marlins beat the Cincinnati Reds 3-1 for their seventh straight win Friday .
Brown ( 14-10 ) tied Todd Stottlemyre of the Cardinals for the National League lead with his fifth complete game and lowered his major league-leading earned run average from 1.96 to 1.92 .
He struck out eight and did not walk a batter .
Brown threw 119 pitches and won for the third time in as many starts against the Reds this season .
" Bolesy ( Florida manager John Boles ) told me yesterday , ' You have to go nine tomorrow , ' " Brown said .
" In the early innings , I was struggling , I was just trying to make it from pitch to pitch .
I gave up a lot of hits in the early innings and I was n't thinking about the seventh , eighth or ninth .
I was n't satisfied with any of my pitches and I did a better job of moving the ball around in the later innings . "
" He has a devastating sinker , " observed Reds manager Ray Knight . "
The guys say it moved more than everyone in the league .
I remember Nolan Ryan saying in ' 91 or ' 92 that he was the best young pitcher coming around in a long time and he saw ( Tom ) Seaver and ( Jerry ) Koosman when they were starting . "
In Philadelphia , Delino DeShields 's triple in the top of the 12th off Jeff Parrett ( 2-3 ) scored Chad Curtis and lifted the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 7-6 victory over the Phillies .
Los Angeles won for the seventh time in eight games .
Darren Dreifort ( 1-1 ) picked up the win after allowing a hit and a walk over 2 1/3 scoreless innings .
Todd Worrell worked the 12th to earn his league-leading 37th save .
The Phillies have dropped five of their last six overall , and nine of 11 at home .
Billy Ashley belted a three-run homer for Los Angeles .
In Chicago , the Braves and Cubs split a doubleheader .
In the first game , Ryne Sandberg snapped an eighth-inning tie with an infield single and Kevin Foster ( 6-2 ) outdueled Atlanta 's Tom Glavine ( 13-8 ) for his third straight win , 3-2 .
Foster , a .333 hitter , helped his own cause in the second with a two-run single .
The Braves took the second game when Chipper Jones singled home the tying run in the top of the ninth and Andruw Jones took advantage of a poor throw to score the go-ahead run on a sacrifice fly for a 6-5 victory .
Cubs shortstop Jose Hernandez committed three of Chicago 's four errors .
Mike Mordecai singled , doubled and homered for Atlanta , which has won 14 of its last 19 games and has the best record in the majors , 84-50 .
In Montreal , Scott Sanders allowed one hit over eight innings and Wally Joyner hit a two-run single in a four-run third as the San Diego Padres blanked the Expos 6-0 for their sixth straight win .
Sanders ( 8-4 ) struck out 10 and walked three to win his fourth straight .
He allowed a leadoff double to David Segui in the second , and won for the seventh time in eight decisions .
The right-hander retired 14 batters in a row from the second inning through the seventh .
Mike Oquist allowed one Montreal hit in the ninth .
Montreal lost for the ninth time in 14 games .
In New York , Marvin Benard 's two-run homer snapped a tie and Shawn Estes came one out away from his first complete game as the San Francisco Giants beat the Mets 6-4 .
Benard , hitting .467 ( 14-for-30 ) against the Mets this season , hit his first pitch from Pete Harnisch ( 8-10 ) in the seventh over the right-field fence to put the Giants up 4-2 .
Estes ( 3-4 ) was lifted for closer Rod Beck after yielding a single with two out in the ninth .
Beck allowed a two-run double to Alvaro Espinoza , who collected a career-high four RBI , but struck out Brent Mayne for his 31st save .
The loss was the Mets ' eighth straight , their longest slide since September 1993 , and dropped them to 0-4 under new manager Bobby Valentine .
In St Louis , Tom Pagnozzi had three hits and three RBI and Alan Benes scattered six hits over six-plus innings as the Cardinals beat the Colorado Rockies 7-4 .
Benes ( 12-8 ) allowed three runs , walked three and struck out three for the win .
St Louis defeated Colorado for just the second time in 12 meetings dating back to last season .
Ray Lankford went 4-for-5 with a pair of doubles for the Cardinals , who won for just the third time in 11 games .
Eric Anthony hit a pair of solo homers for the Rockies .
In Pittsburgh , Sean Berry tied a career high with six RBI and Donne Wall fired a seven-hitter for his first major-league shutout as the Houston Astros routed the Pirates 10-0 .
It was the third time Berry had six RBI in one game .
Wall ( 9-4 ) struck out four and walked none to post his second complete game of the season and third straight win .