Brock Shows Braves What They’re Missing

Chris Brock hardly got the chance to do this for the Atlanta Braves, so he did it against them.

“Brock pitched better than I ever remember,” Atlanta Manager Bobby Cox said Wednesday after the former Brave prospect combined with three relievers to lead the Giants to a 5-1 victory at San Francisco.

Brock (4-2), starting against Atlanta for the first time, spent six years in the Braves’ minor-league system, waiting for a chance to join their vaunted starting rotation.

He was eventually passed over in favor of Kevin Millwood (2-3), who faced him Wednesday and lost.

“He’s the one who took my job, pretty much,” said the soft-spoken Brock, who claimed not to hold any ill will toward his former team. “They just thought he was a better prospect. He threw 95 [mph], I threw 85. That’s just the way it is.”

But Brock showed a Greg Maddux-like efficiency with his 85-mph fastball, moving it around and keeping the Braves off balance on the way to a career-high six strikeouts. His former pitching coach, Lee Mazzone, wasn’t surprised.

“The big difference is that he’s getting a chance to start,” Mazzone said. “With this organization, it’s tougher to break in. Going to the Giants was probably the best thing to happen to him. It gave him another chance.”

Brock gave up four hits and four walks in 5 1/3 scoreless innings.

“The Braves thought I could pitch,” he said. “They just didn’t need me.”

The Giants took two of three, winning a series from the Braves for the first time since July 1996. They had lost five series and split two since.

“It tells me that we can play tough against anybody,” said Manager Dusty Baker, who had a hunch Brock might have wanted this one a little more.

“I told him before the game to pretend that he was pitching against any team, not his former team,” Baker said.

Millwood gave up three runs in the first inning, and the Braves didn’t recover.

Marvin Benard led off with an infield single and Stan Javier reached on second baseman Bret Boone’s throwing error. Run-scoring singles by Armando Rios, J.T. Snow and Brent Mayne gave the Giants a 3-0 lead.

Milwaukee 8, Cincinnati 7--Dave Nilsson hit two of the Brewers’ season-high four homers at Cincinnati.

The Brewers, emerging from an offensive slump, finished a 5-3 trip by revving up the offense on the last day. After hitting .216 in the first seven games, the Brewers piled up a season-high 15 hits, including three each by Nilsson and Mark Loretta.

Geoff Jenkins and Jeromy Burnitz also homered for Milwaukee, which gave last place in the NL Central back to the Reds. Cincinnati had moved out of last place for one day by beating the Brewers, 9-1, in the opener, the Reds’ most lopsided win of the season.

Milwaukee split the series by putting up its best offensive game of the season and getting 6 2/3 innings from Scott Karl (4-1), who has won his last three decisions.

Pinch-hitter Michael Tucker hit a two-run homer with no outs in the ninth against Bob Wickman to cut Milwaukee’s lead to 8-7, but Wickman retired the next three batters for his seventh save in eight chances.

Houston 6, Pittsburgh 2--Jose Lima won his sixth consecutive start, and Richard Hidalgo had a double and a two-run triple at Houston as the Astros won for the 13th time in 16 games.

Lima (6-1), tied for the National League lead in victories with Curt Schilling of the Philadelphia Phillies, is unbeaten since a 2-1 loss to Chicago Cubs in his first start of the season.

“I just go out and have fun,” he said. “If I have fun, I get people out.”

He gave up one run and eight hits in eight innings, struck out a season-high nine and walked one, lowering his earned-run average to 2.86.

“Now I’m tied with Schilling for the most wins and nobody expected it,” said Lima, who was 16-8 last season. “Everybody thought last year was a fluke.”

Jason Schmidt (4-2) gave up four runs, seven hits and four walks in five innings and is 0-7 with a 6.80 ERA in nine career starts against the Astros.

The Pirates, swept in the three-game series and outscored, 31-10, have lost six in a row overall and 11 of their last 13 games in the Astrodome.

New York 10, Colorado 5--Edgardo Alfonzo homered and drove in four runs and Robin Ventura had three RBIs for the Mets at Denver.

Roger Cedeno had four hits and scored three runs for the Mets, who averted being swept in the three-game series. Rick Reed (3-1) gave up four runs and eight hits in five innings.

Vinny Castilla and Dante Bichette each homered for the Rockies.

The Mets roughed up John Thomson (0-5) for three runs in the first inning and three more in the second.

In the first, Cedeno had an infield single and John Olerud walked. Mike Piazza hit an RBI single up the middle, and Ventura lined a two-out, two-run double down the right-field line.

The Mets bunched three doubles in the second to go up 6-0. After Reed walked, Cedeno and Alfonzo each doubled over the head of Bichette in left, with Alfonzo’s hit scoring two runs. With two outs, Piazza doubled off the center-field wall for another run.

Arizona 8, Montreal 6--Andy Fox, Jay Bell and Matt Williams homered for the Diamondbacks during a five-run ninth inning at Phoenix.

Williams’ two-run homer against J.D. Smart was the winner. Earlier, Fox connected for a two-run blast and Bell hit a solo shot against Ugueth Urbina.