Utley's hit streak at 34 games
The St. Louis Cardinals can't seem to take control of the National League Central. Luckily for them, the second-place Cincinnati Reds are struggling, too.
Chase Utley is far from scuffling for the Philadelphia Phillies.
Utley extended his hitting streak to 34 games when the official scorer changed his call on an eighth-inning grounder to help the Phillies rout the Cardinals 16-8 on Wednesday night.
"That was a hit," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. "He cleanly beat that out. That's what happens with speed."
Cardinals manager Tony La Russa's postgame remarks lasted all of 6 seconds.
"This won't take long," said La Russa, whose team lost its sixth straight but still leads the division by 3 1/2 games. "No part of our club was good enough, including the manager, and I don't have anything more to say."
At Cincinnati, Brad Penny pitched six sharp innings and drove in a run to help the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Reds 5-3 for their fifth straight victory.
Cincinnati has lost four straight and its lead in the NL wild-card race has dwindled to a half-game over the Arizona Diamondbacks, whose game against the Cubs at Chicago was rained out.
"You're not going to win a lot of games when you only get four hits," Reds manager Jerry Narron. "We had a couple of chances, but we didn't capitalize."
Utley was 0-for-4 when, with the visiting Phillies leading 11-7, he hit a bouncer to the third-base side of the mound. Left-handed reliever Randy Flores grabbed the ball with his glove hand as his momentum carried him toward third. He briefly hesitated to check Shane Victorino, the runner on third, and then turned and threw wide and late to first.
First-base umpire Adam Dowdy signaled that Albert Pujols was off the bag, but Utley already had beaten the throw.
Official scorer Mike Smith initially ruled it a fielder's choice — the scoreboard nevertheless credited a hit — but after watching replays Smith changed his call to a hit. Smith cited section 10.06 of the Official Baseball Rules, which states that a hit should be scored when a fielder looks or feints at a base before throwing late.
"My gut reaction was Flores' hesitation allowed him to beat the throw," Smith said. "In the end, the hit was the right call, and it's backed up by the rule book."
Just for good measure, Utley singled up the middle in the ninth and finished 2-for-6.
At San Francisco, Moises Alou homered, hit a two-run double and also singled in a run to help the Giants end their longest losing streak in 10 years.
At Miami, the Mets took advantage of four errors by the Marlins, and closer Billy Wagner escaped a ninth-inning jam by striking out the side to close out the win.
Craig Biggio homered twice and Brandon Backe threw 71/2 strong innings for the visiting Astros.Biggio's second homer of the night, his 13th, came off Jon Adkins with one out in the ninth. Biggio and Mike Lamb hit back-to-back homers in the sixth off starter Woody Williams (4-3).
At Denver, Byung-Hyun Kim (7-6) allowed one run and seven hits in a career-high eight innings, and Todd Helton homered and drove in three runs for the Rockies.
