Giants Get Sloppy Victory

J.T. Snow had nothing good to say about Olympic Stadium's turf after the San Francisco Giants salvaged a win despite a poor defensive showing.

The Giants made six errors in a game for the first time since 1977, yet still won their sixth in a row, 6-5 Thursday night over Montreal behind Snow's hitting.

Snow raised his average from .234 to .268 as he tied a career high with four hits. He also drove in four runs to send the Expos to their seventh consecutive loss.

"I've been having good at-bats lately," Snow said. "You've just got to stick with it. You've just got to keep swinging the bat and keep thinking positively. All you want to do is contribute and help, and when you're not doing that it gets frustrating."

The Giants' misplays led to three unearned runs. Montreal fell to 2-11 at Olympic Stadium, the worst start at home in the franchise's 31-year history.

Snow hit an RBI triple off Carl Pavano (0-4) in the fifth inning, a two-run single in the seventh and an RBI single in the ninth. The Giants improved their NL-best record to 16-7.

Russ Ortiz (3-2) threw 98 pitches in five innings, allowing two unearned runs and five hits. He also hit an RBI single.

Ortiz threw 138 pitches six days earlier in his first career complete game, a 7-2 win over Colorado.

Robb Nen got his ninth save in nine chances. His throwing error in the ninth set up an RBI grounder by Chris Widger.

"Certainly you can't play the type of baseball we played tonight and expect to win tomorrow," Giants manager Dusty Baker said. "But when you're going good, who knows? That's three weks worth of errors for us so maybe we got them all out of our system."

With San Francisco leading 2-1, Snow tripled off the wall in left-center with two outs in the fifth.

Michael Barrett, who got three hits, had a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fifth made it 3-2 before Snow's single off Bobby Ayala in the seventh increased the lead to 5-2.

Montreal scored twice in the eighth on Shane Andrews' run-scoring infield single and Wilton Guerrero's RBI grounder.

Jerry Spradlin pitched two hitless innings in his first appearance for the Giants since being acquired in a trade with Cleveland last Thursday.

The Expos took a 1-0 lead in the second on Pavano's bases-loaded, RBI grounder.

Pavano, who has a 7.83 ERA and has thrown just 23 innings in five starts, allowed three runs on eight hits in five innings. He struck out five and walked one.

"I've been throwing a lot of pitches," Pavano said. "I guess I'm going to have to get used to it. I have to go deeper into the games if I'm going to help this team."

Notes: Pavano struck out four in a row after allowing a single to Marvin Benard to lead off the game. ... Snow has seven triples in his eight-year career. ... Widger, the catcher, was struck on the back of his hand when Ramon Martinez followed through on his swing while striking out in the fourth. Widger remained in the game. ... The Giants had made just two errors in their previous eight games. ... Jeff Kent hit a high drive down the left-field line in the fifth that struck a speaker suspended from the rim of the stadium's roof in foul territory and caromed into the stands.

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