Reds triumph to cut Pirates lead in NL Central

CINCINNATI: Joey Votto drove in a pair of runs, and Shin-Soo Choo extended his hitting streak to a career-high 14 games on Saturday, leading the Cincinnati Reds to a 5-4 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The third-place Reds have won the first two games in the NL Central series, closing their gap with second-place Pittsburgh to two games. The Ohio River rivals have split their 12 games this season.
Cincinnati’s Mat Latos (9-3) and Pittsburgh’s A.J. Burnett (4-7) had a tough time finding their control after a 1-hour, 17-minute rain delay in the middle of the first inning. Aroldis Chapman escaped a two-on threat in the ninth for his 23rd save in 26 chances.
Latos gave up three runs in only five innings. Travis Snider’s pinch-hit RBI double cut it to 5-4 in the eighth, but Logan Ondrusek got Jose Tabata to ground out with the bases loaded, ending the rally.
Mets 5 Phillies 4: In New York, Gonzalez Germen came out of the bullpen to bail out fellow rookie Zack Wheeler and help the New York Mets hold off Philadelphia.
Marlon Byrd, David Wright and Daniel Murphy each had an RBI single for the Mets, who handed Cole Hamels his latest defeat and snapped Philadelphia’s seven-game winning streak at Citi Field. Another rookie, Juan Lagares, had a run-scoring single among his three hits.
Jimmy Rollins hit a leadoff homer, and Chase Utley had a two-run shot in the ninth for the Phillies. They put the potential tying run on second with two outs before Bobby Parnell retired Darin Ruf on a game-ending liner to second.
Germen (1-1) escaped a bases-loaded jam and struck out three in 1 2-3 hitless innings for his first major league win. Parnell got three outs for his 18th save despite allowing Utley’s homer.
Brewers 6 Marlins 0: In Milwaukee, Yovani Gallardo carried a shutout into the seventh inning, and Jonathan Lucroy and Rickie Weeks belted home runs, leading Milwaukee over Miami.
Gallardo (8-8) gave up five hits in 6 1-3 innings. He struck out five batters and walked two. Four relievers combined to preserve the shutout as the Brewers held the Marlins without a run for the second consecutive game and extended Miami’s scoreless streak to 24 innings.
Lucroy went 4 for 4 and finished a triple short of a cycle.
The Brewers stretched their dominance at home over the Marlins, winning for the 13th time in 16 games at Miller Park, dating to 2009.
Rockies 9 Cubs 3: In Denver, Carlos Gonzalez homered and Todd Helton had three of the Rockies’ 13 hits in a win over the Cubs.
Troy Tulowitzki, Dexter Fowler and Wilin Rosario had two hits each for a Colorado offense that had scored eight runs in its previous five games.
Luis Valbuena homered and had two RBIs for the Cubs.
Juan Nicasio (6-4) allowed one run on three hits in five innings to get his second straight win since being recalled from Triple-A on July 12.
Dodgers 3 Nationals 1, 10 innings: In Washington, Hanley Ramirez doubled to highlight a two-run 10th inning, and the Dodgers used seven pitchers to again tame the tepid offense of the Nationals.
Adrian Gonzalez led off the 10th with a double off Craig Stammen (5-5). Ramirez followed immediately with an RBI double for his third hit of the night, then scored two batters later on Andre Ethier’s sacrifice fly.
Ethier won Friday’s game with a ninth-inning homer, and the first two games of the series yielded outcomes that kept the teams trending in opposite directions.
Padres 5 Cardinals 3: In St. Louis, Edinson Volquez was bailed out by his bullpen and earned the victory in San Diego’s win over the Cardinals.
Nick Vincent, Dale Thayer, Luke Gregorson and Huston Street worked an inning apiece after Volquez (7-8) faded at the end of a five-inning outing. Street was perfect in the ninth for his 16th save in 17 chances after Carlos Quentin’s RBI double off Trevor Rosenthal in the ninth put the Padres up by two runs.
Lance Lynn (11-5) lost for the fourth time in five starts, allowing four runs in five innings. Allen Craig had a two-run single and 29-year-old rookie Brock Peterson had an RBI groundout in his first major league at-bat after getting called up to replace injured Matt Holliday.
Giants 4 Diamondbacks 3: In San Francisco, Buster Posey hit a two-run homer and Matt Cain bounced back from two rough starts to earn his first win in more than a month as the Giants beat the first-place Diamondbacks for a second straight night.
Posey connected for his 14th homer in the fifth inning. Cain (6-6) allowed two runs in five-plus innings after failing to make it out of the third inning his last two starts to win for the first time since June 13 at Pittsburgh.
With wins in the first two games out of the All-Star break, the World Series champion Giants have cut their deficit in the NL West to 4 1/2 games behind Arizona. The Diamondbacks’ lead over the Los Angeles Dodgers fell to a half-game as Wade Miley (6-8) lasted just four innings.