Sosa, Prior Help Surging Cubs Defeat Astros, 8-3

Sammy Sosa’s struggles were so prolonged that last week he volunteered to drop to No. 5 in the Chicago Cubs’ batting order.

The Cubs have won eight of nine since Sosa’s move and hold a one-game lead over San Francisco in the NL wild-card race. Sosa’s three-run homer Thursday at Chicago, his 568th career blast, keyed an 8-3 victory over Houston.

“He’s swinging a lot better. Today he had the big home run, and that’s the guy we all know,” said teammate Aramis Ramirez, who followed Sosa with a home run in a five-run third.

To get back to the playoffs, the Cubs need Sosa to come around, and Mark Prior too. Prior (4-3) got his first win in three weeks and his first at Wrigley Field since Game 2 of the NL championship series in October, needing 116 pitches to get through six innings.

He sat out the first two months this season while on the disabled list with a sore elbow and Achilles’ tendon.

The loss was only the third in 11 games for the Astros, who stranded 12 runners and fell seven games behind the Cubs in the wild-card race.

Houston’s Carlos Beltran homered for the fourth consecutive game, a solo shot off Jon Leicester in the seventh.

*

San Francisco 5, Florida 0 -- Brett Tomko pitched a four-hitter for his first career shutout, and the Giants got a victory to wrap up their first visit to Miami since being eliminated in the playoffs in October.

The defending World Series champion Marlins fell seven back of the Cubs in the wild-card race. Tomko (7-6) gave up four singles and one walk while striking out four. Tomko improved to 5-0 in seven starts against the Marlins.

Ray Durham hit a two-run homer to give Tomko all the runs he needed.

*

San Diego 10, New York 3 -- Adam Eaton shut down the Mets through seven innings to win his seventh consecutive road start and help the Padres complete a four-game sweep in New York.

It was the fifth loss in a row for the Mets, who never held a lead during the series and were outscored, 26-8, with half their runs coming in the ninth inning.

New York managed only 22 hits in the four games.

Eaton (9-11) retired 19 of the last 21 batters. He gave up two hits over seven innings.

*

Cincinnati 1, St. Louis 0 -- Aaron Harang threw a three-hit shutout for his first complete game and Sean Casey homered to help the Reds win two of three games in the series at Cincinnati.

Chris Carpenter (13-5) also pitched a three-hitter and struck out 11 for the Cardinals. Casey hit the first pitch from Carpenter into the right-field bullpen with two out in the sixth inning for his 21st homer.

The Cardinals had won eight series in a row since dropping two of three games July 23-25 at home to San Francisco. It was only the second series they’ve lost since June.

*

Atlanta 6, Colorado 4 -- Mike Hampton helped himself with a run-scoring single and the Braves pushed their NL East lead to a season-high 9 1/2 games with the victory at Atlanta.

The Braves completed a three-game sweep and won their fourth in a row overall.

Rookie Charles Thomas drove in two runs, and every Atlanta starter collected at least one hit. The Braves finished with 11 hits -- they’ve reached double digits in hits in six consecutive games.