Lance Berkman homered and had
an RBI single for the surging Cardinals, who moved within 2 1/2 games of the
wild card-leading Braves. Atlanta lost at Florida.
St. Louis, which took three
of four in the series, has won 10 of 12 overall.
Despite the loss, the NL East
champion Phillies clinched home-field advantage throughout the postseason when
Milwaukee lost to the Chicago Cubs.
Lohse (14-8) tossed 7 1-3
strong innings, allowing an unearned run and seven hits.
In Miami, the sliding Atlanta Braves stumbled again,
losing to Florida on Omar Infante’s two-run homer off Craig Kimbrel with two
outs in the bottom of the ninth inning.
Atlanta has dropped three of
four.
Kimbrel came in with a 5-4 lead
and retired the first two batters he faced in the ninth. But Emilio Bonifacio then
hit a chopper to third baseman Chipper Jones , who could not come up with the
infield hit.
Infante drove a 1-0 pitch to
left for his first game-ending homer. His sixth homer of the season came
against his former team and handed Kimbrel (4-3) his seventh blown save in 52
chances.
Dan Uggla and Jason Heyward homered
for Atlanta, which scored four runs in the seventh to take the lead. Infante
had a costly error at second base in the inning, allowing the Braves to score
the tiebreaking run.
In Phoenix, Ian
Kennedy pitched eight dominant innings to become the NL’s first 20-game winner,
Justin Upton hit a broken-bat homer and Arizona moved a step closer to its
first NL West title in four years with a victory Pittsburgh.
Kennedy (20-4) allowed one
hit, walked one and tied his career high with 12 strikeouts to become the
fourth Diamondbacks pitcher to reach 20 wins.
Upton led off the sixth with
his 31st homer off Jeff Karstens (9-9), snapping off his bat on a shot to left
that was upheld by a video review.
In Chicago, Geovany Soto hit a pair of two-run homers
and drove in all of Chicago’s runs in a victory over Milwaukee.
The loss and St. Louis’ win
over Philadelphia kept the Brewers’ magic number at four for clinching the NL
Central. They are looking for their first division title in 29 years.
The Cubs snapped a six-game
losing streak to the Brewers.
All three of Soto’s two-homer
games have come against Milwaukee. He hit one off starter Chris Narveson (10-8)
in the third and the second against reliever Marco Estrada in the sixth.
Cubs starter Casey Coleman (3-8)
allowed one run and two hits in six innings, striking out a career-high eight.
Downs greeted Nick Masset (3-6)
with a leadoff drive to left, sending the Astros to their second straight win
after a three-game skid. Six Houston pitchers combined for a four-hitter.
Brandon Phillips hit a leadoff homer in the first for
Cincinnati, which has lost four straight.
David Carpenter (1-3) earned
his first career win by getting Phillips to ground into a forceout with two on
in the seventh.
In Denver, Cory Luebke took a no-hitter into the
sixth inning and San Diego got homers from Cameron Maybin and Aaron Cunningham to
beat slumping Colorado.
Mark Ellis homered for
Colorado’s only hit. The Rockies have lost five straight and six of seven.
Colorado shortstop Troy
Tulowitzki (left hip), first baseman Todd Helton (back) and outfielder Carlos
Gonzalez (right wrist) were out of the lineup.
The Padres have never thrown
a no-hitter in their 43-year history, but Luebke (6-9) took a run at it before
Ellis connected for a two-run shot with two outs in the sixth.
