NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Cardinals Lowly, but Beat Reds

Brian Jordan hit a three-run homer with two outs in the ninth inning off Mike Jackson, giving the St. Louis Cardinals an 8-6 victory over the Cincinnati Reds on Monday night at St. Louis.

The Cardinals have the worst record in the league, but have won three of their last four against division leaders. They took two of three from Atlanta last weekend.

The NL Central-leading Reds had a four-game winning streak stopped despite reaching double figures in hits for the seventh consecutive night, including home runs from Reggie Sanders and Hal Morris.

New York 5, San Francisco 4--The Mets rallied for two runs in the bottom of the 11th inning at New York to win their fifth consecutive game.

The Mets fell behind, 4-3, on a bases-loaded balk by rookie reliever Paul Byrd (1-0) in the top of the 11th, and Rod Beck was one out away from his 23rd save in the bottom of the inning.

But Joe Orsulak doubled to the wall in left-center, scoring pinch-runner Damon Buford from first, and Jose Vizcaino followed with a game-winning run-scoring single off Beck (5-6).

Carl Everett hit two solo homers for the Mets.

Atlanta 5, Houston 4--Ryan Klesko went three for four and hit a run-scoring double that broke a seventh-inning tie as the Braves won at Houston, extending the Astros’ losing streak to five games.

The Braves trailed, 4-3, entering the seventh. Jeff Blauser reached on Ricky Gutierrez’s second error of the game, and went to third when Chipper Jones doubled off Craig McMurtry (0-1).

Dean Hartgraves came on to face Fred McGriff, whose grounder to first scored Blauser with the tying run. Klesko’s double scored Jones with the go-ahead run.

Philadelphia 3, San Diego 1--Sid Fernandez gave up five hits in eight innings and drove in the go-ahead run as the Phillies beat the Padres at Philadelphia.

In winning his fourth consecutive decision, Fernandez (4-1) struck out seven, walked two and gave up only two hits after the second inning as the Phillies won their fifth in a row.

Toby Borland gave up two hits with two outs in the ninth but struck out Brad Ausmus for his fifth save.

Andy Ashby (9-7) gave up four singles in seven innings and one earned run.

Pittsburgh 5, Florida 3--Carlos Garcia’s two-run double in the seventh inning broke a tie and helped the Pirates complete a five-game sweep of the Marlins at Pittsburgh.