Jordan Slams Door on Mets in the Ninth

Brian Jordan’s two-out grand slam capped a seven-run ninth inning as the Atlanta Braves rallied from a four-run deficit to defeat the New York Mets, 8-5, Saturday at Atlanta.

The NL East-leading Braves stretched their edge over the third-place Mets to five games.

Atlanta rallied against relievers Armando Benitez (6-4) and John Franco. Odalis Perez (7-8) got the victory with two scoreless innings.

Philadelphia 5, Florida 4--Pat Burrell, benched earlier in the week, hit a two-run homer for Philadelphia and helped throw out a runner at the plate at Miami.

The Phillies remained two games behind Atlanta with seven games remaining.

Brandon Duckworth (3-1) won for the first time in seven starts since Aug. 12, giving up four runs and five hits in 61/3 innings. Jose Mesa picked up his 39th save.

Chicago 6, Houston 2--Fred McGriff, Rondell White and Todd Hundley homered on successive first-inning pitches from Dave Mlicki (7-2) at Chicago.

Kerry Wood (12-6) gave up two runs and three hits in six innings.

The Cubs were eliminated from the NL Central and remained five games behind St. Louis in the wild-card race.

St. Louis 2, Pittsburgh 0--Matt Morris (21-8) gave up five hits and struck out eight in eight scoreless innings at St. Louis, tying Curt Schilling for the major league lead in victories.

Fernando Vina hit his first homer in 125 at-bats this season against left-handers, a drive against Dave Williams (3-7), who gave up two runs and three hits in seven innings.

Cincinnati 7, Montreal 4--Robin Jennings hit a two-run homer and Ken Griffey Jr. drove in two runs as the host Reds assured Montreal of its fourth consecutive 90-loss season.

Elmer Dessens (10-13) pitched six shutout innings and Danny Graves earned his 30th save.

Colorado 14, Milwaukee 12--Pitcher Denny Neagle of the Rockies hit his second career grand slam, but couldn’t last long enough at Denver to get the victory.

Terry Shumpert had four hits and scored three runs, and Jeff Cirillo had three hits and two runs batted in for the Rockies.

Neagle capped a seven-run fourth inning against Jimmy Haynes (8-19) with his second homer this season, then was chased in the fifth.