NATIONAL LEAGUE Gagne sets record for straight saves to start year

He set the major league record with 39 straight saves, and has 47 overall.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Eric Gagne doesn't show any signs of slowing down.
The bespectacled right-handed closer set the major league record for consecutive saves to start a season when he retired the Chicago Cubs in order to finish off the Los Angeles Dodgers' 3-1 win Friday night.
It was Gagne's 47th consecutive save and 39th without a miss this season -- breaking Jose Mesa's major league record set in 1995 with Cleveland.
Gagne struck out Sammy Sosa on a 2-2 fastball, then fanned Moises Alou and retired Aramis Ramirez, who homered in the second inning for Chicago's only run.
Having good time
"It's fun," said Gagne, in only his second season as a reliever after setting a franchise record with 55 saves last year. "I wasn't really more fired up, but maybe a little more nervous. You always want to challenge people, and tonight I won."
Actually, Andy Ashby did.
Ashby (3-9) won for the first time in seven outings since beating Anaheim 4-2 on June 21. He allowed a run and three hits in five innings, struck out five and walked two while helping the Dodgers win their fifth straight and snap Chicago's four-game winning streak.
The Cubs did not get a hit after back-to-back singles by Ramon Martinez and Sosa with two outs in the third.
Retired 15 in row
Guillermo Mota, Tom Martin, Paul Quantrill and Gagne retired the last 15 Cubs to lower the bullpen's major league-best ERA to 2.06.
"I'm telling you, it's fun to watch them," Ashby said. "You can't ask for anything else. Whoever they bring out of that pen is going to do the job. They've been doing the job all year."
Especially Gagne.
"What's impressive to me is that he broke the record and it's still only Aug. 8th," Los Angeles manager Jim Tracy said.
Cubs left-hander Shawn Estes (7-9) stranded eight base-runners in the first four innings, six in scoring position. But in the fifth, he issued a leadoff walk to Jeromy Burnitz and Adrian Beltre hit his 11th homer to give the Dodgers a 3-1 lead they would not relinquish.
Estes allowed three runs and eight hits over seven innings, striking out six and walking four. He escaped a bases-loaded jam in the fourth by retiring Shawn Green on a 'comebacker.'
Eric Karros was 0-for-3 in the first meeting between the teams since the Dodgers traded him and Mark Grudzielanek to the Cubs in December for Todd Hundley and Chad Hermansen.
Background
Karros, who hit more home runs (270) than any Dodger since the franchise moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in 1958, spent 11 full seasons with them and was the 1992 NL Rookie of the Year. He averaged 31 homers and 104 RBIs between 1995 and 2000 before shoulder and back problems curtailed his production the next two seasons.
"The Dodgers gave me an opportunity to play major league baseball and provided me and my family with a wonderful living," Karros said. "The only thing I regretted was the way it ended, and some of the comments that were made afterward about why I was traded.
"But I was proud of the fact that I was able to be a consistent player here. I tried to handle myself in a professional manner, both on and off the field, and represent the organization."
Karros, who received mostly applause when the starting lineups were announced, was upstaged his first time up. He had to wait until Ramirez finished rounding the bases on his 14th home run before grounding out to third.
Notes
Karros, who received mostly applause when the starting lineups were announced, was upstaged his first time up.
He had to wait until Ramirez finished rounding the bases on his 14th home run before stepping in against Ashby.