Rockies 13, Marlins 4
Todd Helton enjoys his birthday every year. Soon he might be able to celebrate an event 59 years in the making.
Helton homered, drove in three runs and raised his batting average to .398 during a 2-for-4 day as the Colorado Rockies routed the Florida Marlins 13-4 Sunday.
The first baseman, who turned 27 on Sunday, is 6-for-14 on his four birthdays in the major leagues. Helton is trying to become the first player to finish the season with a .400 average since Ted Williams batted .406 in 1941.
"Getting a home run is tough enough but on your birthday?" Helton said. "You can't expect to hit home runs on every at-bat, and you have to get lucky to get them."
Helton isn't ready to get caught up in the chase for .400 just yet. He's leaving that up to the fans, including the crowd of 38,498 at Coors Field who sang "Happy Birthday" to him before the eighth inning.
"I've never had that many people sing to me," Helton said. "They are all thinking about .400. That's something I won't think about until the season is over."
Helton, 25-for-42 with four homers and 17 RBIs during a 12-game hitting streak, hit his 48th double of the season to tie the club record.
Jeff Cirillo added three doubles and three RBIs to reach 100 RBIs for the first time in his career for the Rockies.
PIRATES 7, REDS 3: Brian Giles drove in four runs with a pair of doubles and a homer as Pittsburgh won at Cincinnati, earning a rare Sunday victory.
The Pirates got their first win on a Sunday since June 11, snapping a streak of nine straight losses.
PHILLIES 6, CARDINALS 0:KentBottenfield threw a five-hitter for his first career shutout as visiting Philadelphia beat St. Louis.
BREWERS 6, ASTROS 5: Henry Blanco doubled in the go-ahead run in the ninth inning as visiting Milwaukee snapped Houston's six-game win streak.
JeffBagwell hit his 38th homer and ninth in 10 games for Houston.
BRAVES 8, GIANTS 5:ChipperJones hit two home runs and went 4-for-4 and TomGlavine won his 16th game as Atlanta snapped San Francisco's six-game winning streak. EllisBurks homered twice for the second straight game for the Giants.
METS 9, DODGERS 6:EdgardoAlfonzo, LennyHarris and BubbaTrammell homered, and New York turned two Los Angeles errors into three eighth-inning runs. The visiting Mets, who remained 1 1/2 games behind first-place Atlanta in the NL East, won their eighth straight.
DIAMONDBACKS 5, CUBS 4: Arizona overcame Sammy Sosa's 42nd home run and fourth in three games and rallied at home to win their seventh straight and move within a half-game of San Francisco in the NL West.
RandyJohnson (16-4) threw a four-hitter for his first victory since July 20 and seventh complete game this season. Johnson struck out 13, reaching double digits in strikeouts for the 19th time in 27 starts this season.
PADRES 5, EXPOS 4: Jay Witasick hit two run-scoring singles — his first two big league hits and RBIs — to help himself to his first victory with San Diego.
Witasick (1-1), who spent his first 4 1/2 seasons in the AL, was 0-for-16 coming in. He pitched 6 1/3 innings, allowed four runs, three earned, and 10 hits.