Boone Blast Lifts Reds

For whatever reason, the Cincinnati Reds are at their best at the end of close games. That’s when Aaron Boone shines.

Boone led off the bottom of the ninth inning with a home run against Dustin Hermanson for a 5-4 victory Monday night that ended the St. Louis Cardinals’ winning streak at seven games.

Boone had a two-run double in the first. Eight of Cincinnati’s 14 victories have come in its last at-bat.

Houston 8, Pittsburgh 1 -- Wade Miller (1-3) retired his first 16 batters and Jeff Bagwell hit his 11th home run to lead the Astros at Houston.

Arizona 10, Philadelphia 1 -- Steve Finley homered twice and tripled, and Matt Williams hit a grand slam and a run-scoring double at Phoenix.

Finley scored four times to tie a franchise record.

Milwaukee 5, Chicago 3 -- Richie Sexson hit a two-run homer at Chicago and Ben Sheets (3-3) improved to 6-0 in six starts against the Cubs.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

Kansas City 7, Boston 6 -- The Royals became the first team in 92 years to win its first 11 home games, scoring the winning run in the ninth on shortstop Nomar Garciaparra’s second error of the game.

Detroit 6, Baltimore 1 -- Dmitri Young drove in two runs in front of a Camden Yards all-time low crowd of 17,267, helping the Tigers win two games in a row for the first time in a 66-game span.