Phillies Power Past the Reds

Mike Lieberthal homered twice and drove in four runs as the Philadelphia Phillies defeated the Cincinnati Reds, 7-3, at Philadelphia on Friday night and took the lead in the wild-card race. They moved a half-game ahead of Florida, which lost to Atlanta.

Randy Wolf (16-9) won his fourth consecutive decision, giving up two runs and four hits in six shaky innings. He worked around four walks, striking out eight.

Wolf, whose victory total is the highest by a Philadelphia pitcher since Curt Schilling won 17 in 1997, was aided by a three-run first inning.

Marlon Byrd and Bobby Abreu were on base with walks when Lieberthal homered off Josh Hall (0-1). Lieberthal added a solo shot in the seventh.

Jim Thome tripled in a run. It was his 123rd RBI, the most by a Philadelphia player since Greg Luzinski’s 130 in 1977.

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Houston 8, St. Louis 1 -- Roy Oswalt dominated for seven innings and the Astros got home runs from Jeff Bagwell and Richard Hidalgo at St. Louis as they maintained their lead in the Central Division.

The Astros lead the second-place Chicago Cubs by 1 1/2 games. The Cardinals are nearly out of the race, trailing by six games with seven to play.

Oswalt (9-5) beat Matt Morris (10-8) for the second time in a row, baffling the Cardinals by changing speeds. He yielded a run and five hits, struck out five and walked two.

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Chicago 10-6, Pittsburgh 9-10 -- Craig Wilson and Rob Mackowiak drove in two runs each and the Pirates beat the Cubs in the second game of a doubleheader at Pittsburgh.

The Cubs overcame Pirate rookie Jason Bay’s eight RBIs to win the opener, but they still lost a half-game in the standings during a long evening necessitated by a May 20 rainout.

The Cubs, trying for their first doubleheader sweep of the Pirates since July 4, 1980, took a 3-2 lead in the fifth inning on Sammy Sosa’s 535th homer -- one short of Mickey Mantle, who is 10th on the career list. Sosa’s 36th homer came off Salomon Torres, who shattered Sosa’s batting helmet with a fastball on April 20.

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Arizona 3, Milwaukee 2 -- Randy Johnson hit his first major league home run, and Steve Finley’s solo shot broke a ninth-inning tie at Milwaukee. Johnson had gone 436 at-bats without a homer until lining a 385-foot solo shot to left-center off Doug Davis in the third inning.

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Montreal 7, New York 1 -- Jose Vidro hit a grand slam and a solo home run, leading the Expos, who have struggled away from Montreal this season, to a rare road win. They improved to 8-24 on the road since the beginning of July.

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Colorado 6, San Diego 5 -- Scott Elarton won for the first time in three months, and Juan Uribe and Pablo Osuna drove in two runs each to lead the Rockies at Coors Field.

Elarton (4-4) yielded one run and three hits in six innings in his first victory in his last six starts.