Miami – Chris Young led off the first inning with a homer for the sixth time this season, and Jose Valverde survived a harrowing ninth to help the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Florida Marlins 5-4 on Thursday night.
Valverde walked two and faced NL batting leader Hanley Ramirez with two out.
“I said, ‘Oh man, we’ve got the MVP versus the best closer in the game,”‘ Arizona second baseman Orlando Hudson said. “Fortunately my man Valverde did his thing, like always.”
Ramirez fouled out, giving Valverde his 37th save in 43 chances.
The NL West leaders won 2-of-3 in Miami, and they’ve taken eight series in a row.
“Move on to the next one,” said manager Bob Melvin, whose team plays in Atlanta this weekend. “Don’t think too much about the last one.”
Young’s homer was his 22nd, tying the team rookie record set by Travis Lee in 1998.
DODGERS 6, ASTROS 2 at Los Angeles: Derek Lowe pitched seven shutout innings to earn his first victory in almost two months, and Jeff Kent hit three doubles to match his career high and drove in two runs.
Lowe (9-11) allowed five hits while walking none and striking out two. He was backed by a season-high four double plays.
Lowe had been winless since June 22, going 0-5 with three no-decisions.
CARDINALS 8, BREWERS 0 at Milwaukee: Adam Wainwright (11-9) gave up two hits in seven scoreless innings and Yadier Molina put on a rare power display with two homers as St. Louis completed a three- game sweep of Milwaukee.
It was the first career multihomer game for Molina, who came into the game with only one home run this season. He drove in all three of the Cardinals’ runs through the first eight innings as the third-place Cardinals closed to within 2 1/2 games of the NL Central division lead.
PIRATES 10, METS 7 at Pittsburgh: Two costly New York errors and Adam LaRoche’s third hit of the game helped finish off Pittsburgh’s comeback from a five- run deficit.
PHILLIES 4, NATIONALS 2 at Washington: Cole Hamels (14-5) pitched 6 2/3 shutout innings to tie the NL lead in wins, and Philadelphia took its third straight series.
GIANTS 9, BRAVES 3 at Atlanta: San Francisco homered in each of the first four innings off Chuck James (9-9), scored in every inning until the eighth and went on to salvage the finale of a three-game series.
CUBS 12, REDS 4 at Chicago: Mark DeRosa went 5-for-5 with four RBIs and Chicago scored seven times in the seventh en route to its fifth win in the past 15 games.
