Vaughn Helps Padres Stop Giants

Greg Vaughn hit his 48th homer and Steve Finley had a solo shot as San Diego tied a franchise record with its 92nd victory, beating San Francisco 8-3 Wednesday night to snap a three-game losing streak.

The

The game was punctuated by a wild eighth inning, when San Francisco reliever Julian Tavarez was ejected for reacting angrily after walking Chris Gomez. Tavarez slammed his glove to the ground, tossed his cap toward the plate and ended up chest-to-chest with umpire Sam Holbrook before being pulled away by manager Dusty Baker.

Holbrook, who ejected Mark McGwire from a game last month for arguing a called third strike, said he was bumped by Tavarez.

"Yes, there was contact made," said the umpire, who planned to file a report on the incident to the league office. "That's all I want to say."

After Tavarez was ejected, the Padres scored four runs in the eighth on four walks and Carlos Hernandez's two-run single.

Trevor Hoffman earned his major league-leading 47th save. With the Padres leading 4-3, Hoffman came on with runners on first and third and two out in the eighth and got pinch-hitter Bill Mueller to fly to center. Hoffman then pitched a perfect ninth.

San Diego pulled into a tie with Atlanta for the NL's second-best record at 92-54, one game behind Houston in the race for home-field advantage throughout the first two rounds of the playoffs.

The defending division champion Giants dropped two games behind New York and Chicago in the NL wild-card race and had their three-game winning streak ended.

Vaughn extended his club homer record when he hit a two-run shot into the first row of the left-field seats with one out in the third for a 4-0 lead. The slugger had been in a 1-for-21 slump thastretched back to his final at-bat on Sept. 1, when he hit his 46th and 47th homers off New York's Hideo Nomo.

Finley homered on an 0-2 pitch from Shawn Estes and Jim Leyritz added an RBI groundout in the first. Ken Caminiti walked his first two at-bats and scored both times.

Sterling Hitchcock (9-6) won a matchup of left-handers by allowing just three hits and no earned runs in 6 1/3 innings. He struck out eight and walked four.

Trailing 4-0, the Giants scored three unearned runs in the fifth on two hits, a walk and an error. Former Padre Brian Johnson reached leading off the inning when Leyritz let strike three get by him, then bounced a bad throw to first baseman Wally Joyner for an error.

With two outs, Barry Bonds hit a two-run double and Jeff Kent an RBI single.

Shawn Estes (7-10) lost his third straight start, allowing four runs and five hits in 3 2/3 innings. He walked five and struck out two. Estes hasn't won on the road since May 4 and is 1-8 in 12 starts away from San Francisco.

Notes