Pujols Has 100 Reasons to Be Happy

A milestone game for Albert Pujols helped the St. Louis Cardinals avoid a sweep.

Pujols reached 100 runs batted in, scored his 100th run and extended his hitting streak to 21 games in a 3-0 victory over the Florida Marlins on Thursday night at St. Louis.

“It’s good to get it and it shows what I’ve accomplished, but it’s more important that we won,” Pujols said. “We avoided a sweep and that’s real big for us.”

Brett Tomko pitched shutout ball into the ninth as the Cardinals ended a three-game losing streak.

The Marlins have won nine of 12, and held St. Louis to six runs in the series.

“We took two of three and I’m happy,” Florida Manager Jack McKeon said. “We came in with the idea of winning the series and we did that.”

Pujols is 33 for 82 (.402) during his hitting streak, the team’s longest in four seasons, to raise his average to a major league-leading .372.

Tomko (8-7) won for the first time in five decisions at home, although he has pitched a lot better at Busch Stadium than on the road. He has a 3.30 earned-run average in 11 home starts and is 7-3 with a 7.53 ERA in 13 road games, 12 of them starts.

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San Francisco 7, Pittsburgh 5 -- Jeffrey Hammonds fouled off a bunt try and then hit his first homer for the Giants, a two-run shot that broke a seventh-inning tie at San Francisco.

It was 5-5 when Jose Cruz Jr. drew a leadoff walk in the Giant seventh from Brian Boehringer (5-3). Hammonds tried to sacrifice but fouled it off before homering into the left-field stands on a 3-and-2 pitch.

Hammonds started the year with Milwaukee and hit .158 with a home run and three RBIs in 10 games. He was released by the Brewers on June 4, signed a minor league deal with the Giants on July 2 and was promoted to the majors at the end of the month.

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Arizona 5, Montreal 4 -- Raul Mondesi homered on Eric Knott’s first pitch in the 10th inning, completing a three-game sweep of the Expos at Phoenix.

It was Mondesi’s first homer with Arizona. He was acquired from the New York Yankees on July 29.

It was Arizona’s 11th one-run game in its last 13.

Knott (0-2) had pitched a hitless ninth before taking the loss. Jose Valverde (2-0) came on to get Arizona out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the ninth, then pitched a scoreless 10th to get the victory.

Shea Hillenbrand drove in two runs with a sacrifice fly and single to help the Diamondbacks pull within three games of Philadelphia in the wild-card race.

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New York 5, Houston 4 -- Tony Clark hit a tiebreaking home run in the sixth inning at Houston, helping Steve Trachsel earn his 100th victory.

Clark’s homer was his 15th of the season and fifth in five games for the Mets, who won two of three games in the series against the National League Central leaders. Timo Perez and Marco Scutaro also homered for New York.

Jeff Bagwell hit two homers -- giving him 27 -- and tied Duke Snider for 34th on the career list with 407.

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Chicago 9, San Diego 3 -- Sammy Sosa hit a two-run homer for the second straight game and Moises Alou and Eric Karros also connected for the Cubs, who swept three games from the Padres at San Diego.

The Cubs have won nine of 12. Six Cub players had two hits apiece and four had two RBIs each.

Chicago led the last-place Padres in every inning of the series and outscored them, 15-5.

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Colorado 4, Philadelphia 3 -- Todd Helton and Chris Stynes homered as the Rockies came back to beat Kevin Millwood at Denver.

Helton homered for the second consecutive day. Stynes connected in the seventh inning, breaking a 3-3 tie with his ninth home run of the year.

Millwood (11-8) gave up four runs and six hits in eight innings. He is 3-2 with a 3.34 ERA in six starts at Coors Field.

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Atlanta 7, Milwaukee 1 -- Mike Hampton won his sixth straight decision and Vinny Castilla drove in three runs with a triple and a homer at Milwaukee.

Hampton (9-5) gave up five hits, struck out four and walked one in his first complete game since July 23, 2001. He didn’t give up a hit until Eddie Perez grounded a single to right with two out in the fifth.

Hampton’s six-game winning streak is his best since he compiled a career-high 11-game winning streak in 1999, when he went 22-4 for the Houston Astros.