Lowell Breaks Hand in Marlins’ Victory

The Florida Marlins defeated the Montreal Expos, 4-3, Saturday at Miami, but the victory came with a steep price.

Although Carl Pavano pitched eight-plus innings and Juan Encarnacion homered and drove in four runs to help the Marlins beat Livan Hernandez, Florida All-Star third baseman Mike Lowell broke his left hand when he was hit by a pitch and is expected to miss the rest of the regular season -- a huge blow to Florida’s playoff hopes.

Team doctors said Lowell will miss about four weeks, but he will see a hand specialist today to better determine the severity of the injury and possible treatments. Lowell leads the Marlins with 32 home runs and 105 runs batted in and is batting .277.

Saturday’s win kept Florida tied with Philadelphia for the National League wild-card lead.

Hernandez (14-8) lost for the first time in six starts and only the second time in more than two months.

Houston 11, San Diego 6 -- Lance Berkman and Morgan Ensberg homered, and knuckleballer Jared Fernandez pitched six solid innings to help the Astros win at Houston and remain in a first-place tie with St. Louis in the NL Central.

St. Louis 6, Cincinnati 3 -- Jim Edmonds drove in four runs with a homer and a double and made another sensational catch at the center-field wall to help the visiting Cardinals win.

Milwaukee 9, Chicago 5 -- Richie Sexson homered and drove in four runs, Scott Podsednik stole home and Matt Kinney won his third straight start to help the visiting Brewers win.

Philadelphia 4, New York 2 -- Randy Wolf gave up only six hits in seven innings to help the Phillies win at New York.

Atlanta 13, Pittsburgh 6 -- Rookie Mike Hessman hit a two-run homer to key a seven-run third inning for the Braves at Pittsburgh.