Reds Baseball

Eric Milton took a shutout into the eighth inning, and the Cincinnati Reds beat the Chicago Cubs 3-2 Wednesday night to avoid a three-game sweep.

Ken Griffey Jr. had two hits, including a home run off Carlos Zambrano (3-3) leading off the sixth, and drove in two runs as Cincinnati won for the second time in seven games. Ryan Freel had two hits and scored a run for the Reds.

Milton (3-2) allowed a single to Juan Pierre leading off the first and then retired the next 17 batters before Pierre singled up the middle with two outs in the sixth.

In his third start since returning from arthroscopic knee surgery, Milton allowed two runs and six hits, winning for the first time since beating the Cubs on April 13.


In other games
• Giants 6, Marlins 1 — Jason Schmidt won his fifth consecutive decision, striking out 10 before leaving in the sixth inning with a leg cramp during San Francisco's victory over Florida at Miami.
Schmidt (5-2) left the game with a full count on Josh Willingham with two outs in the sixth. Jeremy Accardo replaced Schmidt and struck out Willingham. Accardo pitched 2 1/3 perfect innings.

Schmidt matched his season high for strikeouts and improved to 7-0 lifetime against the Marlins.

The Giants played without Barry Bonds for the second consecutive day.

• Braves 9, Dodgers 3 — Chipper Jones and Andruw Jones each hit two-run homers, Tim Hudson finally slowed the Los Angeles offense and Atlanta won at home to avoid a sweep.
Andruw Jones homered with two outs in the first off Brett Tomko, who lasted only three innings in his shortest appearance of the season. Jones finished with three RBIs.

Chipper Jones hit his two-run shot in the third, sparking a five-run outburst that finished off the Dodgers starter.

Hudson (5-3) limited Los Angeles to six hits and a couple of meaningless runs in seven innings after the Braves built their early 7-0 lead.

• Nationals 3, Phillies 2 — Alfonso Soriano had a two-run homer and a tie-breaking single as Washington avoided a three-game sweep with a victory at Philadelphia.
Livan Hernandez (4-5) allowed two runs and five hits over seven innings to get his third consecutive victory.

• Pirates 6, Brewers 1 — Jose Castillo homered for the fifth consecutive game and Freddy Sanchez scored three runs as Pittsburgh won at home to earn its first three-game winning streak of the season.
Jack Wilson extended his hitting streak to 11 games, and Castillo and Sanchez each had streaks of seven hits in seven at-bats snapped in the seventh inning.

• Padres 3, Rockies 2 — Mark Bellhorn doubled in the go-ahead run in the sixth inning for San Diego, which had only four hits in winning at home.
Colorado's Jeff Francis (3-5) held the Padres to one hit through five innings and was leading 2-0 after Todd Helton's fourth-inning homer.