Pujols Makes His Mark in Houston

Despite trailing by two with two out in the ninth inning Saturday at Houston, the St. Louis Cardinals weren’t ready to give up.

Scott Spiezio hit a solo home run against closer Brad Lidge to pull St. Louis to within a run. Chris Duncan singled and David Eckstein walked before Aaron Miles’ run-scoring single tied the score.

Albert Pujols then led off the 10th inning with a solo homer against Houston ace Roy Oswalt, lifting the Cardinals to a 7-6 victory over the Astros.

Oswalt, in his first relief appearance since Aug. 24, 2004, gave up the home run to right field on his second pitch. It was Pujols’ 29th homer and gave the Cardinals consecutive victories for the first time since winning three in a row June 16-18.

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Florida 3-3, New York 2-17 -- Jose Valentin hit a grand slam and drove in a career-high seven runs to make Mike Pelfrey’s major league debut a winning one, leading the Mets over the visiting Marlins in the second game of a doubleheader. The Marlins won the opener behind homers from Miguel Cabrera, Josh Willingham and Hanley Ramirez.

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San Diego 5, Washington 2 -- The Padres assured themselves of being in first place in the West Division at the All-Star break by beating the Nationals at Washington. Mike Cameron, Adrian Gonzalez and Mark Bellhorn homered for the Padres, who have won four in a row.

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Chicago 3, Milwaukee 1 -- Rookie Carlos Marmol overcame a wild start to pitch six effective innings at Milwaukee. He walked three of the first five batters he faced in the first inning but still won for the first time since June 11 at Cincinnati.

The Cubs announced that pitcher Kerry Wood has a partial tear in his right rotator cuff and will be out at least four weeks.

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Atlanta 4, Cincinnati 1 -- Pitcher John Smoltz drove in a run with his second hit of the game to lead the Braves past Aaron Harang, who had a three-hit shutout through six innings at Atlanta.

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Arizona 8, Colorado 7 -- Chad Tracy hit a grand slam during a seven-run ninth inning, and the Diamondbacks held off the Rockies, who scored six times in the bottom half of the inning at Coors Field.

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Philadelphia 6, Pittsburgh 2 -- Cory Lidle pitched six solid innings at Philadelphia to end an eight-start winless skid. He won for the first time since May 21.