CHICAGO CUBS 5, ATLANTA 1 ------------------------- ATLANTA (Ticker) -- The Chicago Cubs completed a pleasant journey down south with another impressive start from Terry Mulholland. The versatile Mulholland allowed only an unearned run in 7 2/3 innings and was aided by three homers, including a mammoth blast by Sammy Sosa, as the Cubs defeated the Atlanta Braves, 5-1. Jose Hernandez and Sosa hit back-to-back homers in the first and Henry Rodriguez added a two-run shot in the sixth for the Cubs, who won six of seven games on a road trip that began with three wins against the Florida Marlins. The Cubs also went 6-1 on a road trip from May 11-17, 1998 against Arizona, Colorado and Cincinnati. All three of the homers came off starter Odalis Perez (2-2), who was tagged for five runs and six hits in six innings. Mulholland, making his fifth start in 14 appearances, allowed five hits and a walk with three strikeouts. He did not allow a runner as far as second base until the seventh inning. Terry Adams pitched the final 1 2/3 innings. The 36-year-old Mulholland has been used in various roles for the injury-plagued Cubs and has been especially effective as a starter. He has allowed two or fewer earned runs in four of his five starts. MILWAUKEE 13, MONTREAL 4 ------------------------ MONTREAL (Ticker) -- The Milwaukee Brewers scored five runs in the eighth inning and seven times in the ninth to continue their recent success against the Montreal Expos with a 13-4 victory in the rubber game of a three-game series. Lou Collier and Geoff Jenkins each drove in three runs as the Brewers scored all of their season-high runs with two outs. Rookie Ron Belliard matched his career high with three hits and drove in two runs for Milwaukee, which has never lost a series to Montreal and has won 10 of the last 15 meetings. Expos closer Ugueth Urbina (2-4) did not retire any of the four batters he faced after replacing Steve Kline in the eighth inning. He was charged with three runs, allowing two hits and walking two. Urbina has allowed 13 earned runs this season after allowing 10 in all of 1998. David Weathers (4-0) allowed a run in the seventh but earned the win. Kline retired the first two batters in the eighth before walking Jeromy Burnitz. David Nilsson then struck out but reached on a wild pitch and Urbina walked Brian Banks and Rich Becker to force home Burnitz. Jenkins fought off an 0-2 pitch for single to left to score Nilsson and Banks to tie the game, 4-4. Belliard singled to right on a 1-2 pitch to score Becker and Pinch hitter Marquis Grissom had an RBI single off Guillermo Mota to give the Expos a 6-4 lead. NY METS 5, PHILADELPHIA 4 ------------------------- FLUSHING, New York (Ticker) -- For eight innings, Curt Schilling was putting on quite an audition. In the ninth, the Mets made sure he did not earn a winning role. The Philadelphia Phillies ace took a four-run lead into the bottom of the ninth inning but saw the New York Mets rally behind a two-run homer by Robin Ventura and John Olerud's two-out, two-run single to pull out a stirring 5-4 victory. New York, which had split the first two games of the series, did little against Schilling (7-2) over the first eight innings, managing just seven singles. The disgruntled starter, who criticized Phillies management earlier this week and whose name is often mentioned in trade rumors, toyed with the Met hitters, striking out seven. But in the ninth, they sent nine men to the plate and Olerud capped the Mets' fifth win in their last at-bat this season by singling sharply to left to score Luis Lopez and Roger Cedeno. Cedeno slid in just ahead of the throw of left fielder Ron Gant and under the tag of catcher Mike Lieberthal. Rigo Beltran (1-0) notched the victory with two hitless innings in relief of starter Rick Reed. Schilling, who was seeking his fourth straight complete game, threw 138 pitches in losing for the first time since April 21. COLORADO 7, ARIZONA 6 --------------------- DENVER (Ticker) -- The Colorado Rockies have been slumbering in the daytime before Dante Bichette woke them up in a big way. Bichette hit a three-run homer off Gregg Olson to cap a four-run ninth inning as the Colorado Rockies rallied for a 7-6 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks in the finale of a four-game series. Todd Helton hit a three-run homer in the fourth inning for the Rockies, who snapped a six-game losing streak in day contests by handing Olson his fifth blown save of the season. Neifi Perez opened the ninth with a single and went to second on a one-out single by Darryl Hamilton. Lenny Harris beat out a potential double-play grounder to put runners on first and third before Larry Walker singled to left to cut the deficit to 7-4. The hot-hitting Bichette belted a 1-2 pitch from Olson down the left-field line for the game-winner. Bichette smacked his eighth homer and has 11 hits in his last 21 at-bats. It was the 13th time in club history that a Rockie ended a game with a home run, and the fifth time by Bichette. He last accomplished the feat May 31 against Houston. The Rockies won Friday's game on an 11th-inning homer by Walker. Chuck McElroy (2-0) recorded the final out in the top of the ninth for the win. PITTSBURGH 6, FLORIDA 5 ----------------------- MIAMI (Ticker) -- Al Martin's run-scoring double snapped a ninth-inning tie as the Pittsburgh Pirates overcame an early five-run deficit for a 6-5 win over the Florida Marlins. Pinch-hitter Mike Benjamin led off the ninth with a single off Vic Darensbourg (0-1) and moved to second on a balk. Pinch-hitter Keith Osik flied out to send Benjamin to third and, with the infield in, Martin hit a popup that fell in shallow left-center field to give the Pirates a 6-5 lead. The Pirates overcame the first major league homer by Florida starter Alex Fernandez, who remained winless since April 5 after the bullpen blew a 5-3 lead. Jeff Wallace (1-0) struck out four in two scoreless innings for his first major league win and Mike Williams walked one and struck out two in the ninth for his seventh save in eight chances. Pittsburgh managed a split of the four-game series. Four Pirates relievers shut down the Marlins after Jason Schmidt was tagged for five runs and eight hits in 1 2/3 innings. HOUSTON 4, SAN FRANCISCO 1 -------------------------- SAN FRANCISCO (Ticker) -- Jose Lima continued to show he is among the National League's elite pitchers. Facing only three batters above the minimum, Lima worked eight strong innings to win his eighth straight start and help the Houston Astros avoid a three-game sweep with a 4-1 victory over the San Francisco Giants. Lima (8-1) became the NL's first eight-game winner, allowing a leadoff home run to Marvin Benard in the bottom of the first but little else. He scattered two singles and a double the rest of the way, walking two and striking out two. Unbeaten since his first start of the season on April 8, Lima lowered his ERA from 2.98 to 2.76. Billy Wagner tossed a hitless ninth for his 12th save in 13 chances. Jeff Bagwell took care of the offense with a three-run homer that snapped a tie in the seventh inning. Houston wrapped up a 3-3 road trip and improved to an NL-best 11-2 when facing lefthanded starters. Rookie Joe Nathan (2-1) surrendered Bagwell's home run after erratic starter Shawn Estes gave up one run and three hits in 5 1/3 innings with six walks and seven strikeouts. Four Giants' pitchers walked eight batters, three of whom scored. San Francisco had a three-game winning streak stopped. ST LOUIS 8, LOS ANGELES 3 ------------------------- LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- Thomas Howard's pinch-hit three-run homer capped a four-run seventh inning and Edgar Renteria added three RBI singles as the St. Louis Cardinals downed the Los Angeles Dodgers, 8-3. Howard belted his sixth career pinch homer off Onan Masaoka to make it 7-3. Run-scoring singles by Shawon Dunston and Renteria an inning prior staked the Cardinals to a 4-1 lead. Darren Oliver (4-2) won his second straight start, surrendering three runs and seven hits over 5 1/3 innings. Four relievers combined to scatter four hits over 3 2/3 shutout innings as the Cardinals took two of three games from the Dodgers for the second straight weekend and won the season series, 6-3. The game was interrupted by a bench-clearing incident that erupted in the ninth after Dodgers reliever Jamie Arnold hit Dunston with a pitch. Arnold had hit Joe McEwing two batters earlier. Dunston was the only player ejected. St. Louis has won six of its last eight games overall and improved to 15-8 on the road. Carlos Perez (1-6) lost his third straight start, allowing four runs and nine hits over 5 2/3 innings. He has allowed 16 runs and 21 hits over 15 innings in that span and fell to 3-3 lifetime against the Dodgers. Los Angeles has dropped six of its last eight games but set a Dodger Stadium record by drawing 162,376 to the three-game series. The previous record was 162,122 when the San Francisco Giants played three games from September 5-7, 1966. CINCINNATI 6, SAN DIEGO 2 ------------------------- SAN DIEGO (Ticker) -- Steve Avery and Scott Williamson combined to throw a two-hitter and the surging Cincinnati Reds won for the seventh time in eight games with a 6-2 victory over the San Diego Padres. Eddie Taubensee had three hits and three RBI and Michael Tucker came up a homer shy of the cycle and scored three times, helping Cincinnati (21-19) move two games over .500 for the first time since winning its first two contests in 1997. Avery (3-3) struggled with his control as he pitched for the first time in 12 days, having sat out his last start due to a blister on his left middle finger. He still managed to limit the opposition to two runs or less for the sixth time in eight starts. He matched a career high with six walks, but also allowed just two hits and struck out four. The lefthander has yielded two earned runs and four hits over 11 innings to win his last two starts after going winless in four straight. Avery improved to 5-4 lifetime against the Padres. Williamson walked three but did not allow a run or a hit in three innings, striking out six en route to his fifth save in as many chances.  