Redbirds still flying high
LOS ANGELES — Chris Carpenter claims he has no idea where the St. Louis Cardinals rank in the overall NL standings. He's one big reason they're getting close to the top, where the Los Angeles Dodgers are teetering.
Rick Ankiel put St. Louis ahead with a two-run homer in the seventh inning, and Carpenter pitched eight innings of five-hit ball in the Cardinals' ninth victory in 10 games, 3-2 over Los Angeles on Monday night.
Albert Pujols hit his major league-leading 39th homer as the Cardinals opened a seven-game California road trip by persevering against knuckleballer Charlie Haeger, who was largely outstanding in his debut for Los Angeles.
Carpenter (13-3) fell behind twice, but Pujols and Ankiel connected to ensure his fifth consecutive victory. St. Louis moved within 2½ games of the Dodgers' overall NL lead, though that's news to the Cardinals' ace.
"I don't know what our numbers are," said Carpenter, who had eight strikeouts. "I don't know what our record is. I do know we've got a chance to win every time we come to the ballpark, and that's exciting. You can't not get excited about a game like this in a ballpark like this against a team like this."
Carpenter has gone 8-0 with a 2.12 ERA in his nine starts since July began.
Ankiel homered after Haeger (0-1) hit Ryan Ludwick with a pitch, sending a knuckleball that didn't knuckle deep into the right-field corner.
"There's no yellow light, there's no warning sign, if the knuckleball decides to tumble to the wrong guy," Dodgers manager Joe Torre said.
Ryan Franklin really had to earn his 30th save, getting Manny Ramirez on a first-pitch popout and retiring Casey Blake on a fly to the fringe of the warning track.
"You've got to give him credit," Ramirez said of Carpenter. "He didn't make a lot of mistakes out there, and when you've got a Cy Young-type pitcher like that pitching and he doesn't make mistakes, he's going to be tough to hit."
Padres 4, Cubs 1At San Diego, Rookie Kyle Blanks hit a three-run homer with two outs in the bottom of ninth for the Padres.The Cubs were one strike away from securing a 1-0 win when Chase Headley doubled off Kevin Gregg (4-5) to score David Eckstein, who walked with one out, from first base.Kevin Kouzmanoff was intentionally walked before Blanks hit his seventh homer.Heath Bell (5-2) pitched one inning for the win.
Braves 9, Diamondbacks 4At Atlanta, Ryan Church hit a three-run double to highlight a six-run third inning for the Braves.Tommy Hanson (8-2) gave up six hits, no walks and two runs in six innings for his third straight win. The rookie right-hander struck out seven.Garret Anderson gave the Braves a 1-0 lead with a second-inning homer, and Adam LaRoche added a two-run shot off Max Scherzer in the sixth.Scherzer (7-7) gave up six hits and nine runs, three earned, in five innings. His throwing error in the third made all the runs in it unearned.Stephen Drew and Mark Reynolds homered for Arizona.
Giants 10, Mets 1At New York, Aaron Rowand homered and had four hits, and San Francisco won to split the four-game series.Pinch-hitter Nate Schierholtz chased Livan Hernandez (7-8) with a two-run double in a three-run sixth inning that broke it open. Randy Winn added three hits for the Giants, who set a season high with 18.San Francisco moved within one game of Colorado for the NL wild-card lead.Gary Sheffield had an RBI single for the Mets.Joe Martinez (3-1), who has won twice in three starts, allowed one run and five hits in five innings.
Rangers 8, Twins 5Marlon Byrd drove in three runs and the Rangers extended their lead in the AL wild-card by beating the slumping Minnesota Twins 8-5 on Monday night."It's a good feeling," said Josh Hamilton, who had two hits and scored twice for the Rangers. "We're loose, joking around and doing what we're capable of doing."After taking two of three over the weekend from Boston, the Rangers stretched their advantage to one game over the idle Red Sox.Tommy Hunter (6-2) won his third straight start, allowing four runs and four hits in 5 2-3 innings. David Murphy had two RBIs for Texas, which led 7-2 after the second inning.
Athletics 3, Yankees 0At Oakland, Calif., Brett Tomko pitched five scoreless innings to beat the Yankees less than a month after being released by them.Kurt Suzuki and Mark Ellis had RBI hits in a three-run fourth inning against A.J. Burnett (10-6) in the Yankees' second straight loss.Three relievers finished the shutout, the fourth this season against the Yankees.Tomko (2-2) allowed five hits and one walk in his Oakland debut. It was his first start since May 26, 2008, for Kansas City.
Angels 8, Orioles 5At Baltimore, Vladimir Guerrero hit two homers and had five RBIs, and Kendry Morales and Maicer Izturis homered for Los Angeles, which broke a 2-all tie with three runs in the sixth and three in the seventh.Izturis broke the tie with a solo shot off rookie David Hernandez (4-5) in the sixth. Guerrero added a two-run drive.In the seventh, Guerrero hit a three-run homer, his 10th of the season and 402nd for his career.
White Sox 8, Royals 7At Chicago, Scott Podsednik had a go-ahead RBI single in the eighth and A.J. Pierzynski hit a two-run homer in the seventh for the White Sox.With the score tied at 7, Alex Rios drew a leadoff walk from reliever Roman Colon (1-3) in the eighth. After a sacrifice and another out, Podsednik singled off John Bale.Jayson Nix hit a two-run homer for the White Sox.
