Ortiz Advances to the Sweet 16

Russ Ortiz worked into the ninth inning to become the second 16-game winner in the major leagues and the Atlanta Braves hit four home runs in a 7-2 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals Friday night at St. Louis.

Ortiz (16-5) gave up two runs and five hits in eight-plus innings, joining Roy Halladay of the Toronto Blue Jays with 16 victories.

Ortiz needs two more wins to match his career high in 1999 with the Giants. He has won nine of his last 10 and has never lost consecutive decisions, bouncing back in this game after losing his last start to the Dodgers.

Gary Sheffield, Marcus Giles, Andruw Jones and Javy Lopez homered for the Braves, who lead the league with 174.

Albert Pujols doubled in the sixth to extend his hitting streak to 22 games for the Cardinals, who have lost three of the first four on a six-game homestand.

Pujols, who got his 100th RBI and scored his 100th run on Thursday, is batting .395 (34 for 86) during the streak and a major-league best .371 overall.

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San Francisco 9, Philadelphia 1 -- Barry Bonds hit his major league-leading 35th home run to help the Giants win at San Francisco.

Andres Galarraga also homered for the West Division-leading Giants, who won for the fourth time in five games.

Bonds, who hit a three-run homer off Jose Mesa in the seventh, was also intentionally walked twice, giving him 44 this season. He’s on pace for 73, which would break his own mark of 68 set last season.

Bonds sent a 3-0 pitch from Mesa into McCovey Cove for his 648th career homer -- 12 short of Willie Mays for third on the career list -- to give the Giants a 7-1 lead.

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Colorado 13, Pittsburgh 6 -- At Coors Field, Preston Wilson hit his 29th home run and drove in three runs to give him a major league-leading 111 RBIs to help the Rockies move within 4 1/2 games of the wild-card spot.

Jose Jimenez (1-6) pitched four innings of relief and gave up two runs and four hits in the game that was delayed 2 hours and 4 minutes because of rain and hail at the end of the first inning.

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San Diego 1, Cincinnati 0 -- Mark Kotsay doubled off the center-field fence to break a scoreless tie in the bottom of the 12th inning.

Kotsay, who had three hits in four at-bats, delivered the winning hit after reliever Brian Reith walked pinch-hitters Sean Burroughs and Ryan Klesko with one out, both on four pitches.

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New York 3, Arizona 1 -- Tom Glavine earned his first victory since July 4 and in so doing, ended the Diamondbacks’ three-game winning streak.

Glavine (7-11), who hadn’t pitched since July 29 because of a strained oblique muscle, gave up one run and four hits in six innings at Phoenix for his first win in six starts.

Glavine got his 249th career victory and Mike Stanton pitched the ninth for his third save.

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Florida 5, Milwaukee 3 -- Juan Encarnacion hit a two-run home run and Carl Pavano picked up his career-high ninth victory at Miami as the Marlins beat the Brewers for the sixth time in seven games. Pavano (9-10) gave up two runs and five hits in six innings while walking one and striking out seven.

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Houston 5, Montreal 1 -- Lance Berkman hit an RBI double and made a big defensive play at Houston that helped Jeriome Robertson (11-5) and the Astros hand the Expos their fourth loss in a row.

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NL Wild-Card Race

*--* W L GB Florida 63 52 -- Philadelphia 63 52 -- Arizona 60 55 3 Dodgers 59 55 3 1/2 Chicago 59 55 3 1/2 St. Louis 59 56 4

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