Cubs Win Too Late for Maddux

The Philadelphia Phillies got to Greg Maddux. Then so did the heat in Chicago. And by the time the Cubs rallied for a victory Sunday, Maddux’s bid for victory No. 300 was over.

“I think I could have started the seventh. I don’t know if I could have made it out of there or not. I was pretty much done after the fifth or sixth,” Maddux said.

His six-inning stint ended in a no-decision and denied him a piece of history.

“I’m just glad we won,” he said.

After Maddux left trailing by a run, the Cubs scored four in the seventh, capped by a run-scoring single by Nomar Garciaparra, and beat Philadelphia, 6-3. Chicago’s new star shortstop was acquired from Boston in a four-team deal just before the trading deadline Saturday.

“I think we were all hoping we’d get Maddux that win,” Garciaparra said.

But now it will have to wait.

On a sticky, 83-degree day at Wrigley Field, Maddux left after throwing 87 pitches, 25 in the first inning, when he gave up homers to Jimmy Rollins and Bobby Abreu.

Philadelphia pushed across an unearned run for a 3-2 lead in the fifth on an error by Sammy Sosa.

Maddux told Manager Dusty Baker after the fifth to watch him because he was running low on energy. And Maddux wasn’t about to take a chance pitching when he had nothing left, even with No. 300 at stake.

“I would have loved to go out there and try not to walk somebody and just hope they would hit it at somebody. But it’s not right,” Maddux said.

“It’s not fair to the rest of the guys. It’s not the way you are supposed to play the game.”

Maddux’s next try to become the 22nd major league pitcher to reach 300 wins probably will come Saturday in San Francisco.

“We didn’t want Maddux to get 300 against us,” Phillie Manager Larry Bowa said. “I don’t think anybody likes to see anybody get their 300th win against them, even though he’s a Hall of Fame pitcher.”

Maddux, 38, is trying to become the first National League pitcher to reach 300 wins since Philadelphia’s Steve Carlton in 1983.

St. Louis 6, San Francisco 1 -- Woody Williams (8-6) gave up five hits in 6 1/3 innings for the 100th victory of his career, and Scott Rolen’s first-inning homer stood up for the Cardinals at San Francisco.

Giant starter Jason Schmidt (13-4) remained at 99 victories.

Atlanta 6, New York 5 -- Andruw Jones homered and drove in four runs against former teammate Tom Glavine (8-9), and the Braves completed a three-game sweep at Atlanta.

Eli Marrero and Chipper Jones each had three hits for the Braves, who won their fifth in a row.

Glavine fell to 1-5 against Atlanta, where he played the first 16 seasons of his career.

Houston 7, Cincinnati 5 -- Adam Everett’s eighth-inning suicide squeeze drove in the go-ahead run at Cincinnati, and Roy Oswalt (11-8) beat the Reds again.

Morgan Ensberg had three runs batted in for the Astros, including a sacrifice fly in the eighth that cut their deficit to 5-4. After Jeff Kent scored the tying run on a bases-loaded walk by John Riedling (4-3) to Craig Biggio, Everett laid down a bunt just beyond the reach of reliever Todd Van Poppel for a base hit that allowed Jeff Bagwell to score from third.

Colorado 10, Arizona 2 -- Jeromy Burnitz drove in four runs with two homers to back Aaron Cook’s second complete game, and the Rockies completed a three-game sweep at Denver.

Vinny Castilla, Todd Helton and Aaron Miles also homered for the Rockies, who have won seven in a row against the Diamondbacks.

Cook (6-4) gave up two runs and seven hits in his first complete game since April 18, 2003, against San Diego. He induced 15 groundouts in winning for the fourth time in five decisions.

Milwaukee 8, Pittsburgh 7 -- Bill Hall’s bases-loaded single in the ninth inning lifted the host Brewers.

The Pirates had rallied for two runs in the ninth against closer Dan Kolb to tie the score, 7-7.

Milwaukee’s sixth victory in 18 games since the All-Star break kept it from falling below Pittsburgh into the NL Central cellar.

Montreal at Florida, ppd. -- The game at Miami was called because of rain and will be made up as part of a doubleheader Sept. 14.