By The Associated Press
St. Louis – Morgan Ensberg had a tiebreaking double in the ninth inning, his fourth hit of the game, as the Houston Astros beat the St. Louis Cardinals 7-6 on Wednesday night to maintain a 2 1/2-game lead over the Philadelphia Phillies in the wild-card race.
With the score 6-6, Willy Taveras led off the ninth with his major league-leading 69th infield hit and scored without a play on Ensberg’s double into the left-field corner off Jason Isringhausen (1-2).
Houston swept a two-game series against the Central Division champions, finishing the season 5-11 against St. Louis, and will close the regular season with a four-game series at home against the Chicago Cubs that starts today.
Philadelphia (85-74) is off today, then finishes with three games at Washington.
Lance Berkman and Mike Lamb homered for the Astros, who at 87-71 are a season-best 16 games above .500. Chad Qualls (6-4) worked a perfect eighth, and Brad Lidge finished for his 40th save in 43 chances.
Pirates 3, Cubs 2
Chicago – Chicago’s disappointing season at Wrigley Field came to a close as rookie Nate McLouth homered for the third consecutive day for Pittsburgh.
Chicago finished 38-43 at Wrigley Field and must sweep a four-game series at Houston to finish at .500 overall.
Paul Maholm (3-1), in his sixth major-league start, outpitched Mark Prior (11-7) who lost to Pittsburgh for the first time in his career. Maholm, a 23-year-old left-hander, gave up two runs and six hits in 6 2/3 innings.
The announced attendance on an overcast day was 37,491, giving the Cubs 3,099,992 for 81 home dates, the second-largest attendance figure in club history.
“We had a hard time holding up our end of the bargain,” Cubs manager Dusty Baker said.
Pirates reliever Salomon Torres pitched a scoreless eighth and gave up a single to Matt Murton in the ninth. After Mike Gonzalez relieved, Jeromy Burnitz reached on second baseman J.J. Furmaniak’s error when he couldn’t come up with his hard shot, and Henry Blanco walked to load the bases with no outs.
“I was having a little trouble getting the grip of the ball. The rosin was wet and my hands were wet, so I had to deal with that,” Gonzalez said. “What I wanted to do was strike out the lefties I had in front of me and get the other guy to ground out or pop up.”
And that’s what he did to the dismay of Baker and the Cubs.
Gonzalez earned his third save in three chances by striking out Corey Patterson and pinch-hitter Ben Grieve, then retiring Jose Macias on a popup.
“We get so much fan support, you’d think you’d play well here, but we didn’t,” Chicago’s Derrek Lee said.
McLouth’s fourth homer of the season, a solo shot, gave Pittsburgh a 3-0 lead in the fifth against Prior. Dropping to 6-1 in 11 starts against the Pirates, Prior allowed three runs – one earned – and six hits in five innings with seven strikeouts and four walks.
“I felt out of sync all day. The ball never felt comfortable coming out of my hand,” Prior said.
Maholm allowed one hit in the first four innings, a single by Prior in the third.
“I just wanted to go out and end the year on a good note,” Maholm said. “I didn’t want to go into the offseason after getting shelled. It’s going to be great competition in spring training. I think I’m in the mix.”
Reds 11, Brewers 4
Milwaukee – Adam Dunn hit his 39th home run, and Felipe Lopez drove in three runs as Cincinnati denied Chris Capuano his 19th victory.
Capuano (18-11) pitched five innings, giving up six runs and eight hits. He was trying to be the first Brewer to win 19 games since Teddy Higuera won 20 games in 1987.
Aaron Harang (11-13) pitched 7 1/3 innings, giving up four runs and 14 hits.
