Gary Darling

Greg Vaughn hit his fifth National League home run and 36th overall and Bob Tewksbury gave up three hits in 7 2/3 shutout innings for his first victory in a month as the Padres defeated the Montreal Expos, 3-0, Tuesday night at San Diego. Vaughn, who had two hits, broke up a pitchers' duel between Tewksbury and Rheal Cormier when he drove a 3-0 pitch over the left-field fence with one out in the sixth. Five of Vaughn's nine hits with the NL West-leading Padres are homers.

Unbeaten rookie Kirk Rueter started a triple play, and the Montreal Expos supported him with two double plays in a 1-0 victory over the Chicago Cubs Monday night at Montreal. Rueter (4-0) started the sixth-inning triple play by catching a line drive hit by Rey Sanchez. The left-hander, who gave up five hits in 8 1/3 innings, leaped to catch the ball and relayed to shortstop Wil Cordero, who stepped on second to get Steve Lake before tagging Greg Hibbard coming in from first.

More than two-thirds of American League umpires probably will stay on the job rather than resign, though nearly all NL umps still plan to quit. Baseball hired 10 more replacement umps from the minors even though four more AL umpires withdrew their resignations Friday. So far, 12 of 32 AL umps have changed their mind about quitting, and 11 never quit in the first place, according to a count by the Associated Press. In the National League, 33 of 36 umpires have resigned, effective Sept. 2.

The cover of the Dodger media guide features the club's four consecutive rookies of the year--Eric Karros, Mike Piazza, Raul Mondesi and Hideo Nomo. Todd Hollandsworth could make it five in a row. Hollandsworth, whose rookie baserunning mistake possibly cost the Dodgers a run the previous night in a shutout loss, went four for five with three singles and a triple as the Dodgers beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 9-5, Saturday night before 44,548 at Dodger Stadium.

Carlos Beltran homered and drove in four runs, and Carlos Delgado also homered to help Pedro Martinez win his first start of the season as the New York Mets beat the Washington Nationals, 10-5, Thursday night at Shea Stadium in a game interrupted by a near fight. Jose Guillen pointed his bat at Martinez and charged halfway to the mound after getting hit by a pitch for the second time in the game in the fifth inning.

Cleveland's Orel Hershiser will start Game 1 of the AL division series against New York and will be followed by rookie Jaret Wright, chosen over staff ace Charles Nagy to pitch the second game at Yankee Stadium. Hershiser, 39, is 8-1 with a 1.83 earned-run average in the postseason. "Orel has been a big-game pitcher his entire career," Indian Manager Mike Hargrove said. "He is very difficult to intimidate no matter what the circumstances are."

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Rays Manager Joe Maddon, the former Angels bench coach, had a heated argument with first-base umpire Jerry Meals in the sixth inning Tuesday night, a dispute that led to Maddon's ninth career ejection, four coming against the Angels. More than an hour later, after Tampa Bay had come back for a 4-2 win, Maddon was still fuming about a controversial -- and apparently missed -- call that might have cost the Rays a bigger inning. With the Rays trailing, 2-1, Jason Bartlett broke up Angels starter Ervin Santana's no-hit bid with a one-out double to left in the sixth, and he took third on Akinori Iwamura's infield single.

Does heavyweight champion Mike Tyson drive like Leon Spinks? According to the New York Police Dept., two Port Authority officers left their posts outside the Holland Tunnel in Lower Manhattan to investigate an automobile accident. When they got to the scene they found a dejected Tyson looking over a dent in his sleek luxury car. He had just sideswiped a parked car after losing control of the convertible.

Unyielding and unforgiving, major league baseball continued to gut its umpiring staff Thursday when 13 National League umpires were informed their resignations have been accepted effective Sept. 2. Nine American League umpires received similar notification earlier in the week.

With the Dodgers trailing by a run in the ninth inning, Dee Gordon three times tried to bunt his teammate to second base and three times Gordon failed, sending him dejectedly back to the dugout. "I was frustrated with myself," Gordon said. "But I couldn't dwell on it. " So after the Dodgers tied the Chicago White Sox later in the inning, Gordon refocused on his next at-bat and lined a walk-off single in the 10th inning to drive inTony Gwynn Jr. and give the Dodgers a 2-1 interleague win. "It feels great to come through for my teammates," Gordon said after they mobbed him on the infield dirt between second and third base.