Wood Dominates Reds, Cubs Are Alone in First

With a whiff of the postseason in the air and thousands of Chicago Cub fans reveling in the stands, Kerry Wood dominated.

Wood (14-11) struck out 12 and held the Cincinnati Reds to one infield single in seven innings Tuesday night, leading the Cubs to a 6-0 victory at Cincinnati and sole possession of first place in the National League Central.

The Cubs haven’t been alone in first place this late in a season since 1989, the last time they won a division title.

“We’re sensing that we’ve gotten into the position we wanted to be in all year long,” Wood said. “We’re in it, and now we’ve got to step up and play good baseball.”

The Reds couldn’t get a ball out of the infield through the first six innings. Wood walked Russell Branyan with one out in the seventh, and Wily Mo Pena ended the no-hit bid with a high-hop infield single.

San Francisco 10, Houston 3 -- Edgardo Alfonzo hit a grand slam in a 10-run second inning at Houston, and the Giants knocked the Astros out of first place in the NL Central.

Jason Schmidt (17-5) has won five consecutive decisions and 12 of his last 14.

Atlanta 2, Montreal 0 -- John Smoltz earned his 45th save but his first since coming off the disabled list, after Rafael Furcal’s two-out single in the eighth inning broke a scoreless tie at Atlanta.

Gary Sheffield had a run-scoring double against Javier Vazquez (13-12), who dominated the Braves for seven innings. Sheffield has 128 runs batted in to surpass the Atlanta record that had been held since by Hank Aaron since 1966.

St. Louis 5, Milwaukee 1 -- Woody Williams (17-9) defeated the Brewers for the second time in a week and the Cardinals ended a five-game road losing streak.

The Cardinals stayed 3 1/2 games behind first-place Chicago in the NL Central race with four left.

New York 1, Pittsburgh 0 -- Al Leiter (15-9) pitched his first complete game in more than a year and Tony Clark drove in the run with a double in the fourth inning at New York, helping the Mets end an eight-game losing streak.

Colorado 20, Arizona 9 -- Ronnie Belliard homered twice and drove in a career-high eight runs, Larry Walker hit a grand slam and had six RBIs and the host Rockies eliminated the Diamondbacks from postseason contention.