MONTREAL -- It was a game that will be debated and dissected in the Dominican Republic this winter. Perhaps one day it will even be treasured in the Martinez family.
The game the Martinez brothers dreaded Thursday night, facing one another for the first time in their lives, emerged into a classic pitching duel that was far more enjoyable than either imagined.
It ended with Ramon Martinez as the winner in the Los Angeles Dodgers' 2-1 victory over the Montreal Expos, keeping the Dodgers two games behind the San Diego Padres in the National League West, and one-half game ahead of the Expos in the wild-card race.
Expo starter Pedro Martinez (11-9), the younger brother, struck out a career-high 12 batters, yielding only six hits and two runs in his complete-game performance. His only mistakes were back-to-back home runs to Mike Piazza and Eric Karros in the fourth inning.
Ramon Martinez (11-6) was better. He permitted only three infield hits, and yielded one run in eight-plus innings before Todd Worrrell closed out the ninth for his 36th save.
"I was really happy,'' Pedro Martinez said. "That's probably the only game I'll ever feel good about losing.
"I just didn't want my brother to look like Cy Young and I was the other pitcher on the pile. But Ramon was great, wasn't he? Deep inside my heart, I cheered for him.''
Rockies 18, Reds 7. In Denver, Joe Oliver hit a grand slam and drove in a career-high seven runs and Eric Davis homered for the third straight game as the Cincinnati Reds set a season-high for runs in an 18-7 victory over the Colorado Rockies.
Oliver hit his fourth career slam in the sixth. The Reds scored six times in the fifth and six more in the sixth to break open a 3-2 game.
Mariners 9, Orioles 6. Mark Whiten's grand slam with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning lifted the Seattle Mariners to a wild 9-6 win over the Baltimore Orioles Thursday.
Whiten, hitless in his previous seven at-bats, smacked the first pitch he saw from closer Randy Myers (3-4) over the right-field wall for his third career grand slam.
It was Myers' seventh blown save of the season as the Orioles, who blew a 5-2 lead and carried a 6-5 margin from the sixth into the ninth, lost for just the third time in 61 contests when leading after eight.
Seattle (70-63) is five games behind the Texas Rangers in the AL West but pulled into a tie with Baltimore and a virtual tie with the Chicago White Sox (71-64) in the wild-card race.
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