Baseball: Sanders saves Giants

The San Francisco Giants started the second half of the season with a batting fightback. Reggie Sanders singled in JT Snow with the winning run with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning as the Giants rallied for a 3-2 victory over the Colorado Rockies on Thursday evening.

Jose Jimenez retired Jeff Kent to start the bottom of the ninth, but Snow followed by lining a ball into the right-centre field gap for his first triple since May 2001. Sanders followed by lining a 1-1 pitch into centre field to give the Giants the victory. He also had a sacrifice fly that tied the game in the seventh as the Giants recovered a 2-0 deficit.

In Milwaukee, Brian Giles connected for a solo homer in the top of the 10th inning as the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Brewers 3-2.

Mike Piazza lit up an eight-run eighth inning in New York with a two-run triple and Timo Perez added a three-run double as the Mets routed the Philadelphia Phillies 9-1.

In Cincinnati, Roy Oswalt improved his career record to 5-0 against the Reds and Geoff Blum hit a three-run homer in the Astros' 4-3 victory. Quinton McCracken hit a two-out, RBI double in the top of the eighth inning to lead Arizona to a 4-3 victory in Los Angeles over the Dodgers. In Montreal, Andruw Jones and Gary Sheffield hit three-run homers in Atlanta's 8-5 victory over the Expos.