Houston – The Houston Astros finally solved Carlos Zambrano and kept the Chicago Cubs from grabbing a share of the lead in the NL Central.
Roy Oswalt (12-6) pitched six shutout innings and Craig Biggio and Lance Berkman hit solo home runs off Zambrano (14-8) as the Astros beat the Cubs 8-2 on Wednesday night to complete a three-game sweep.
Luke Scott added a two-run triple and Mike Lamb had a two-run double as Houston snapped a four-game losing streak to the Cubs ace, who hadn’t given up more than one earned run against Houston in almost two years.
The Cubs have lost four straight games and six of their past seven, averaging 2.7 runs in the losses.
REDS 1, DODGERS 0 at Cincinnati: Ken Griffey Jr. singled home a run and made two rally-snuffing defensive plays in Cincinnati’s win.
Right-hander Aaron Harang (11-3) returned from a sore back that cost him a start and limited Los Angeles to four hits over eight innings.
METS 4, BRAVES 3 at New York: Moises Alou hit a tiebreaking homer in the eighth inning and Billy Wagner escaped a bases-loaded, none-out jam in the ninth.
Wagner earned his 350th career save and extended his scoreless streak to 21 innings.
PHILLIES 6, MARLINS 4 at Philadelphia: Kyle Lohse (7-12), acquired at the trade deadline from Cincinnati, was solid in his second start for Philadelphia.
He gave up Miguel Cabrera’s 28th homer, but stayed away from the line drives that knocked him out of his previous start. He left after one inning in his Phillies debut with a bruised right forearm after he was hit by a liner.
DIAMONDBACKS 10, PIRATES 6 at Phoenix: Chris Snyder drove in four runs, two on a home run, and Arizona overcame Byung-Hyun Kim’s miserable return to the team.
Kim, the team’s closer from 1999-2001, was booed when introduced and lasted 2 1/3 innings. He gave up four earned runs on seven hits, struck out three, walked one and hit a batter.
GIANTS 5, NATIONALS 0 at San Francisco: Barry Bonds hit a towering homer, the 757th of his career, into McCovey Cove in the first inning to help Bruce Bochy gain his 1,000th managerial victory.
CARDINALS 2, PADRES 1 at St. Louis: Kip Wells (5-13) limited San Diego to an unearned run in seven innings, and St. Louis got first-inning RBIs from Juan Encarnacion and Albert Pujols.
