Cardinals Rally in Ninth to Win

A five-run rally in the ninth inning by a dormant St. Louis offense kept Chris Carpenter’s nine-game winning streak alive.

Jim Edmonds’ two-run double with two out capped the five-run comeback in a 5-4 victory over San Francisco on Friday night at St. Louis.

The Cardinals were stymied on six hits before rallying after eight innings for only the third time in 43 attempts.

“In one way it’s lucky and in one way that’s what it’s all about,” Edmonds said.

Yadier Molina hit a three-run homer -- his third hit of the game -- earlier in the inning. It helped rescue Carpenter, who leads the majors with 17 victories and hasn’t lost since June 8.

“What a great game it was,” Carpenter said. “It’s all about what we did in that last inning.”

Julian Tavarez (2-2) earned the victory.

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Cincinnati 17, Arizona 3 -- Austin Kearns hit three-run homers in consecutive innings at Cincinnati and the Reds set a season high for runs in a game and one inning, scoring 10 in the fourth. Felipe Lopez had a three-run homer and Wily Mo Pena had a solo shot for the Reds.

San Diego 12, Atlanta 7 -- Joe Randa hit a three-run homer and the Padres matched their season high with 20 hits at Atlanta. The Padres improved to 4-0 against Atlanta, moved within a game of .500 (60-61) and pushed their lead in the National League West to four games over Arizona.

Houston 5, Milwaukee 3 -- The Astros rallied at Houston to win and ended a three-game losing streak. The Astros moved half a game ahead of Philadelphia and Florida in the wild-card race.

Chicago 5, Colorado 3 -- Mark Prior (9-4) struck out 10 in six strong innings, then got relief help from Kerry Wood at Denver.

Pittsburgh 11, Philadelphia 2 -- Kip Wells gave up three hits over seven innings, hit a two-run homer and ended a career-high four-game losing streak at Philadelphia.

New York 1, Washington 0 -- Jae Seo gave up four hits in eight innings to outpitch John Patterson, and Victor Diaz drove in the only run with a seventh-inning single at Washington.