Bonds, Santiago Get Giants a Little Closer

Barry Bonds hit his 45th homer and Benito Santiago drove in four runs, and the San Francisco Giants moved closer to clinching the National League wild card with a 12-3 victory over the San Diego Padres on Tuesday night at San Francisco.

Russ Ortiz won his sixth consecutive start and the Giants, who have won four in a row and six of seven, moved three games ahead of the Dodgers in the wild-card race.

Bonds drove a 1-and-1 pitch over the wall in right field for a two-run homer in the seventh. It was the 612th career homer for Bonds, who also drew his major league-leading 64th and 65th intentional walks, giving him 193.

*

St. Louis 3, Arizona 2--Edgar Renteria singled home the winning run with two out in the ninth inning at St. Louis, extending Arizona’s skid to five games, but the Diamondbacks clinched a playoff berth when the Dodgers lost to Colorado.

Arizona had tied the score, 2-2, in the top of the ninth against closer Jason Isringhausen (3-2) when pinch-hitter Greg Colbrunn’s infield hit drove in pinch-runner Mark Little from second.

*

Milwaukee 3, Houston 1--Wayne Franklin (2-1), traded by Houston on Sept. 3, beat his former team for the second time in five days.

The start of the game at Houston’s Minute Maid Park was delayed by 19 minutes because of rain. Team officials elected to use a tarp to cover the infield before deciding to close the roof.

*

Cincinnati 1, Chicago 0--Jimmy Haynes (15-9) gave up three hits in six innings at Chicago, and Aaron Boone homered in the first against Kerry Wood (11-11).

*

Florida 9, Montreal 6--Juan Encarnacion and Mike Lowell each homered twice to lead the Marlins at Montreal. Encarnacion tied a career high with five runs batted in.

Montreal’s Vladimir Guerrero, who has 40 steals, hit his 39th homer.

*

Philadelphia 5, Atlanta 3--Travis Lee and Pat Burrell each had two RBIs at Philadelphia.

The NL East champion Braves have lost three of four. Tom Glavine (18-11) walked a season-high six and hit a batter, giving up five runs and seven hits in 5 2/3 innings.

*

Pittsburgh 6, New York 3--Pinch-hitter Adrian Brown had a two-run single, and the Pirates rallied for four runs in the bottom of the eighth.