Braves Victorious Despite Brawl

May 26, 1998 / 1:59 AM EDT / CBS/AP

Kevin Millwood came out on top, even though he wound up on the bottom during a fifth-inning melee.

Millwood won his seventh game and Curtis Pride had a pair of hits and two RBIs before being ejected following a collision at home plate as the Atlanta Braves beat the Chicago Cubs 9-5 Monday night.

Millwood (7-1) allowed five hits, walked one and struck out six in seven innings as the Braves won for the sixth time in seven games and improved to 37-14, their best start in franchise history.

Millwood helped separate Pride and Cubs catcher Sandy Martinez after the two got into a shoving match following the play at the plate.

"I just wanted to get him (Martinez) off of Curtis," Millwood said. "Obviously nobody wants to be on the bottom of the pile, but I wasn't going to stand around and let the guy hurt Curtis."

Pride, who bruised his right arm in the collision, said he wasn't looking to fight.

"I made a good, hard, clean play. I'm a nice guy and I can't pick a fight," said Pride, who is deaf but does speak.

"I wasn't trying to fight," said Martinez. "He was on top of my head and I wanted to get him off. I pushed him off and he came at me like he wanted to fight."

Cubs manager Jim Riggleman said the confrontation was no big deal.

"It really wasn't that big of a fracas," he said. "Sandy took a very hart hit, and did a great job to hang on to the ball. It's easy for tempers to flare on a play like that."

Millwood left with a 6-2 lead, but Sammy Sosa made it close in the eighth with his second homer of the game, a three-run shot off reliever Mike Cather.

The Braves made it 9-5 in the bottom of the inning on a two-run double by Andres Galarraga and an RBI double by Javy Lopez.

Millwood became the third pitcher in the National League with seven wins. The others are teammate Tom Glavine (7-2) and Pittsburgh's Jason Schmidt (7-1).

Keith Lockhart and Andruw Jones each went 4-for-5 for Atlanta, which matched its season high with 18 hits. Lopez had three hits, including his 11th homer, and Michael Tucker scored three runs for the Braves, who had 10 extra-base hits.

Pride, getting a rare start in left field when Ryan Klesko showed up with a stiff neck, went 2-for-2 with a sacrifice fly before his ejection in the fifth inning.

Pride drove in Atlanta's fifth run with a two-out RBI single, but was thrown out trying to score from first on a double to left by Jones.

He crashed into Martinez, who pushed Pride as he got up. Pride then threw an errant punch before both players were wrestled to the ground. Both benches emptied, but order was quickly restored and Martinez also was thrown out of the game.

Trailing 2-1, the Braves rallied for three runs in the fourth inning ff Kevin Tapani (6-3) for a 4-2 lead. Jones drove in one run with an infield single, Millwood got another RBI with a sacrifice bunt and the third run scored on an RBI double by Lockhart.

The Cubs scored in the third on an RBI single by Mickey Morandini, who went 3-for-3. Chicago, which has lost four of its last five, got another run in the fourth on Sosa's 10th homer of the season.

Notes: Atlanta's starting rotation of Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, Denny Neagle and Millwood is 30-7. ... Atlanta shortstop Walt Weiss sat out his fourth consecutive game with a sore left hamstring. He's listed as day-to-day. ... Through 50 games the Cubs have a 28-22 record. Last season Chicago was 19-31. ... The Cubs are 12-13 on the road. Last year, they were 26-55 away from home. ... Atlanta closer Mark Wohlers, on the 15-day disabled list since May 3 with a torn muscle on his left side, made his first appearance since then in a scoreless ninth. He walked two and struck out two.