Astacio Picks Up Slack for Astros

Ezequiel Astacio, starting in place of Roger Clemens, gave up four hits in six innings Saturday and the Houston Astros increased their lead in the National League wild-card race with an 8-3 victory over the host Chicago Cubs.

Craig Biggio matched his career high with his 24th home run and Lance Berkman also homered. It was the ninth win in 11 games for Houston, which extended its lead to two games over Philadelphia in the wild-card race.

“We’ve got to take care of our own business. If we don’t do that, we could be sitting at home in a few weeks,” Biggio said.

Nomar Garciaparra hit a two-run homer for the Cubs, who were officially eliminated, to cut the deficit to 4-3 in the sixth inning. The game was halted an inning later for 1 1/2 hours because of rain.

Astacio was tapped to start after Clemens was scratched Friday because of a sore left hamstring. Clemens, who leads the majors with a 1.89 earned-run average, has been bothered by the injury all month.

Astacio (3-6) hadn’t started since Sept. 2 and had pitched only one inning in each of his last four outings.

“I didn’t put any pressure on myself,” Astacio said.

“Astacio did a good job today. A real good job today,” Manager Phil Garner said. “Astacio kept them down and he kept us in the ballgame, and then we broke it open.”

Arizona 8, San Diego 5 -- Chad Tracy doubled in three runs in a five-run eighth inning to help the Diamondbacks rally at Phoenix.

Luis Gonzalez homered twice for the Diamondbacks, who avoided elimination in the NL West.

Ramon Hernandez hit a three-run homer to left field in the fourth inning to break a 2-2 tie. The ball bounced off Gonzalez’s glove and into the stands.

The first-place Padres dropped back to 77-77, the same record as the New York Mets, the last-place team in the NL East.

The Padres lead second-place San Francisco by five games with eight to play.

Colorado 6, San Francisco 0 -- Sunny Kim (6-2) shut down Barry Bonds and the rest of the Giants at Denver, throwing a three-hitter for his first career shutout.

Bonds was hitless in three at-bats at homer-friendly Coors Field, where his 24 homers are the most of any visiting player.

Cincinnati 3, Philadelphia 2 -- The Reds had only four hits, but the Phillies were unable to overcome a three-run deficit at Cincinnati.

Eric Milton (8-14) rebounded from the shortest start of his eight-year career to beat his former team, and Adam Dunn backed him up with a two-run homer.

The Phillies scored a run in the seventh inning and another in the eighth to get within one run, but David Weathers pitched a perfect ninth to preserve the victory.

Phillie shortstop Jimmy Rollins singled in the third inning to extend his hitting streak to 29 games, tying Boston’s Johnny Damon for the major league high this season.

Atlanta 6, Florida 1 -- Andruw Jones hit his major league-leading 51st homer and the host Braves lowered to three the magic number for clinching the NL East.

The Marlins, who have lost eight of 10, were eliminated from contention in the division. They are five games behind the Astros in the wild-card race.

Atlanta’s Chipper Jones connected in the third inning to reach 20 homers for the 11th consecutive season.

New York 5, Washington 2 -- Tom Glavine carried a shutout into the sixth inning for his 274th win and David Wright’s grand slam capped a five-run first against Livan Hernandez at Washington.

The Nationals started mostly rookies and reserves, and Manager Frank Robinson said before the game that he’ll rest most regulars the rest of the way.

Each team will be eliminated from playoff contention with one more loss.

Glavine (12-13) took sole possession of 29th place on the career victory list.

Milwaukee 8, St. Louis 7 -- Chad Moeller hit a three-run homer and Brady Clark hit a two-run drive in a seven-run second inning against Mark Mulder at Milwaukee.

Mulder (16-8) lasted 1 2/3 innings, the shortest outing of his 181 starts, and gave up seven runs, seven hits and one walk.

Gary Glover (4-4) made his first appearance since June 5 and his first start since May 25.

Glover, who was recalled from triple-A Nashville on Sept. 20, struck out a career-high eight in six innings.

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Wild-card standings

*--* TEAM W L PCT. GB Houston 85 70 548 -- Philadelphia 83 72 535 2 Florida 80 75 516 5

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