CHICAGO -- Greg Maddux gave the Chicago Cubs their third straight strong start, allowing four hits in seven innings Sunday in a 4-1 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates.\nAramis Ramirez hit a solo home run for the Cubs, who have won two in a row after losing eight of 10. The Pirates have lost seven of eight.\nMaddux (5-4), following Mark Prior and Carlos Zambrano in the rotation, struck out six and walked none. He gave up his only run in the third, when Tike Redman blooped a single, Ryan Vogelsong (1-6) sacrificed and Jason Kendall singled to put the Pirates ahead.\nLaTroy Hawkins pitched the ninth for his fourth save in six chances.\nAfter giving up a single to Derrek Lee in the second inning, Vogelsong retired 14 of his next 15 batters.\nRamirez homered to tie the score in the seventh, a drive that went through a basket and dropped on the field. \nChicago added two runs in the eighth on Jose Macias' RBI single and second baseman Abraham Nunez's run-scoring throwing error.
Reds 6, Expos 5\nCINCINNATI -- Ken Griffey Jr. homered twice to increase his career total to 498, and the Cincinnati Reds rallied with three runs in the ninth inning to beat the Montreal Expos 6-5 Sunday.\nPinch-hitter Jacob Cruz hit a two-out, two-run homer in the ninth that tied the score against Rocky Biddle (0-4), and the Reds won the game on singles by pinch-hitter Barry Larkin, Ryan Freel and D'Angelo Jimenez, who went 3-for-5. Griffey, who had his 50th multi-homer game, hit a two-run, opposite-field homer to left in first and a solo shot in the third to tie teammate Adam Dunn and the Cardinals' Albert Pujols for the major league lead with 17. He has 100 since joining the Reds before the 2000 season.\nGriffey has three home runs in Cincinnati's last two games and nine in his last 14 games. With two more, he would become the 20th major leaguer to reach 500.\nAfter his second homer, Griffey responded to the crowd after the second homer by coming out of the dugout and waving his cap. The crowd of 31,814 booed when Livan Hernandez walked Griffey on four pitches with one out and nobody on in the sixth inning. Griffey flied out in the eighth.
