Pujols Lifts Cardinals in the Ninth

Albert Pujols homered leading off the bottom of the ninth inning, and John Mabry was four for four with four runs batted in to lead the St. Louis Cardinals over the Montreal Expos, 5-4, Wednesday night.

Pujols hit his 31st homer, a drive against Chad Cordero (3-2) that capped the Cardinals’ rally from a 3-0 deficit.

Julian Tavarez (3-3) pitched a scoreless ninth for the National League Central leaders, who have won seven of nine.

Alex Gonzalez, who had three hits, tied the score, 4-4, in the eighth with a double against Steve Kline that drove in Terrmel Sledge, who reached on a two-base throwing error by second baseman Tony Womack.

St. Louis made three errors. Mike Matheny’s bad throw in the eighth was his first in 252 since Aug. 1, 2002, at Florida, a record streak for catchers.

Brian Schneider put Montreal ahead with a run-scoring double in the second, and Expo starter Livan Hernandez hit a two-run double in the fourth to make it 3-0 after Schneider lined a ball off Jeff Suppan’s shoulder for an infield single.

Suppan gave up three runs and eight hits in five innings, leaving when pitcher Woody Williams pinch-hit for him leading off the fifth and struck out. Hernandez gave up four runs, nine hits and four walks in 6 2/3 innings.

Mabry put St. Louis ahead with his two-run homer in the fifth and two-run double in the seventh against Joe Horgan.

Philadelphia 7, San Diego 5 -- Jimmy Rollins hit an inside-the-park homer and Eric Milton (12-2) won for the first time in six starts, leading the Phillies at San Diego.

David Bell hit a two-run homer for the Phillies, who remained 4 1/2 games behind Atlanta in the National League East. Philadelphia has won 16 of 21 against NL West opponents, including four of five against San Diego.

Ramon Hernandez and Khalil Greene each hit solo homer in the third inning for San Diego, which dropped a season-high 5 1/2 games behind the first-place Dodgers in the West with its third consecutive loss.

Cincinnati 8, San Francisco 7 -- Adam Dunn hit two homers and Felipe Lopez hit a go-ahead two-run shot in the sixth at San Francisco, where the Reds blew a big early lead but rallied for only their second victory in 13 games.

The Giants dropped to 6 1/2 games behind the Dodgers in the NL West.

Dunn hit his 30th and 31st homers to move into second place in the NL behind Philadelphia’s Jim Thome.

Cincinnati’s Ken Griffey Jr. hit the 400th double of his career in his first appearance since tearing a hamstring July 10, but left in the fifth inning with stiffness in the hamstring.

Atlanta 5, Houston 4 -- John Thomson (9-7) gave up four hits in seven innings at Houston, Chipper Jones had two run-scoring singles and the Braves won for the 10th time in 12 games.

Jeff Bagwell hit a two-out, two-run homer in the ninth against closer John Smoltz. But after giving up Bagwell’s 16th home run this season and 435th of his career, Smoltz finished for his 26th save in 28 chances.

Arizona 11, Florida 6 -- Randy Johnson (11-9) gave up five runs in six innings to end his three-game skid and Roberto Alomar had four hits and three runs batted in to lift the Diamondbacks at Phoenix.

The Diamondbacks won consecutive games for the first time since June 30-July 1 against San Diego. The Diamondbacks’ 11 runs were their most since an 11-5 win over San Francisco on June 3.

Chicago 11, Colorado 8 -- Aramis Ramirez hit a tiebreaking solo homer in the eighth inning after Nomar Garciaparra had scored on Shawn Chacon’s wild pitch at Denver, where the lead changed three times in the last three innings -- twice on home runs.

After pinch-hitter Mark Sweeney hit a go-ahead two-run homer in the seventh for Colorado, Ramirez hit a solo homer to make it 7-6. Todd Walker hit a two-run homer two batters later for the Cubs.

New York 6, Milwaukee 5 -- First baseman Lyle Overbay botched Gerald Williams’ bunt for a tiebreaking two-run throwing error in a five-run seventh inning at Milwaukee and the Mets won consecutive games for the first time in nearly a month.

Jose Reyes played shortstop for the Mets for the first time since Aug. 31, moving from second because of an injury to Kaz Matsui. Reyes made a throwing error in the fifth, giving the Mets the major league lead with 94 errors.