Derrek Lee and the Chicago Cubs rallied for one sweet road win. The Florida Marlins have so many come-from-behind wins they’re becoming almost routine.
Lee hit a tiebreaking RBI double in the ninth inning and the Cubs beat the Milwaukee Brewers 6-4 on Monday night to take a two-game lead in the NL Central.
“The way we’ve been playing, we just needed a win. Period,” Lee said. “On the road, it makes it even better.”
In the opener of a four-game series between the NL’s top two teams, the Cubs prevailed in a back-and-forth contest to improve to 32-26 at Miller Park.
In Miami, Dan Uggla and Cody Ross hit RBI singles to spark a five-run eighth inning, and the Marlins rallied for a 7-3 victory over the New York Mets.
With their 31st come-from-behind win, most in the National League, the Marlins closed within a game of NL East-leading New York. Second-place Philadelphia is a half-game out of first.
“You definitely don’t draw it up like that,” Ross said. “You’d rather go out there and win 4-0. But it shows how much heart we have as a team.”
In other NL games, it was: San Diego 8, Arizona 5; St. Louis 12, Atlanta 3; Pittsburgh 8, Colorado 4; San Francisco 7, Los Angeles 6; and Houston 5, Cincinnati 4.
With the game tied at 4 in Milwaukee, Brewers closer Salomon Torres (5-3) struck out Kosuke Fukudome, but ran into trouble by walking Alfonso Soriano and pinch-hitter Mike Fontenot.
“I wasn’t able to execute, bottom line,” Torres said.
Lee, who finished 3-for-5 with three RBIs, then flared a double to right, scoring Soriano. After an intentional walk to Aramis Ramirez and a strikeout of Geovany Soto, Mark DeRosa’s infield single scored Fontenot.
Chad Gaudin (2-1) earned the win with a scoreless eighth.
Ryan Braun, J.J. Hardy and Russell Branyan homered for Milwaukee. CC Sabathia allowed nine hits and four runs, three earned, in 6 2-3 innings.
Adding to the Mets’ gloom, starter John Maine left the game after 4 1-3 innings because of a stiff shoulder, and he’ll return to New York for tests.
“I’m frustrated because I want to go out there and pitch,” Maine said.
Mets reliever Joe Smith (1-3) failed to record an out in the eighth, and was charged with two runs and two hits. Doug Waechter (3-2) got the win.
Padres 8, Diamondbacks 5
Backed by big home runs by Khalil Greene and rookie Nick Hundley, Greg Maddux snapped a career-high, 14-start winless streak by beating Micah Owings (6-9) and visiting Arizona.
It was the fourth straight win for the last-place Padres. The NL West-leading Diamondbacks had their three-game winning streak snapped.
Maddux (4-8) also moved past Hall of Famer Phil Niekro and into 10th place on the career strikeout list with 3,344.
Cardinals 12, Braves 3
Albert Pujols drove in three runs, Braden Looper won for the first time in six starts and visiting St. Louis beat injury-riddled Atlanta.
Joe Mather went 3-for-5 with a homer and two RBIs for the Cardinals, who had lost six of seven.
Charlie Morton (2-4), recalled from Triple-A Richmond because of Hudson’s elbow injury, gave up eight runs and seven hits in 3 2-3 innings.
Looper (10-8) allowed two runs and seven hits in seven innings, winning for the first time since June 24.
Pirates 8, Rockies 4
Ian Snell won for the second time in 18 starts, Nate McLouth homered and Pittsburgh rallied to snap visiting Colorado’s five-game winning streak.
Ryan Doumit and Doug Mientkiewicz each had three hits and two RBIs for the Pirates, who had lost three straight. Pittsburgh also took advantage of nine walks to beat Colorado for the first time in five games this season. The Rockies had won nine of 10 since the All-Star break.
After Willy Taveras’ RBI single in the second inning gave Colorado a 3-0 lead, Snell (4-8) retired 14 of the final 17 hitters he faced.
Jason Grilli (2-1) got the loss.
Giants 7, Dodgers 6
Jose Castillo hit a pair of RBI singles, Fred Lewis also drove in two runs and visiting San Francisco ended a three-game skid.
Kevin Correia (2-5) won for the first time since April 10, allowing six runs – four earned – and seven hits in 5 1-3 innings. Brian Wilson worked a perfect ninth for his NL-leading 28th save in 30 chances.
Hiroki Kuroda (5-8) had his worst outing of the season, giving up seven runs and nine hits in 3 2-3 innings.
Astros 5, Reds 4
Roy Oswalt came off the disabled list and beat Cincinnati again, striking out five in host Houston’s win.
Oswalt (8-8) won his fifth straight start against the Reds and improved to 20-1 in 25 career outings against them, despite giving up a grand slam to Adam Dunn.
Geoff Blum hit his third homer in two days and Jose Valverde pitched a perfect ninth to earn his 27th save.
Johnny Cueto (7-10) gave up five runs and eight hits for the visiting Reds, who’ve lost four in a row and six of their last eight.
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