Joe Torre thought his team's performance was embarrassing. Bronson Arroyo felt the same way about his pitching.

Two of Friday's most anticipated interleague games turned into routs, mostly because of the New York Yankees' sloppiness in the field and Arroyo's ineffectiveness on the Wrigley Field mound.

New York tied its season worst with three errors, ruining Torre's return to St. Louis with an 8-1 loss to the Cardinals. The night ended with Torre holding a closed-door meeting after the Yankees lost for the eighth time in 10 games on a season-high 12-game trip.

"I'm just not very happy. It was an ugly game," Torre said. "We didn't play hard enough, we didn't do anything to help ourselves win. It was an embarrassing game."

Jason Marquis (8-3) allowed a run and six hits in eight innings and Albert Pujols singled, doubled and homered for St. Louis, which opened its second straight high-profile interleague series. The Cardinals took two of three in a World Series rematch with the Red Sox, winning the first two games by a combined 16-3.

Boston opened another series with a bad loss Friday. The Chicago Cubs hit four homers - one by winning pitcher Greg Maddux - and had 20 hits in a 14-6 victory.

Arroyo (4-3) allowed seven runs and 10 hits in four innings, quickly taking away the suspense in the first meeting between the teams since the 1918 World Series.

"It's a worst case scenario. Going out there against a guy like Greg Maddux, to give him seven runs early, it's putting us in a hole that's almost impossible to get out of most of the time," Arroyo said.

Maddux (5-3) allowed seven hits and three runs in 6

innings to earn his 310th career win.

The matchup between teams known mostly for heartbreak - the Cubs haven't won a World Series since 1908, the Red Sox hadn't since their 1918 victory over Chicago before winning last year - drew 39,215, including plenty of red-clad Red Sox fans.

"I thought it was great," Boston center fielder Johnny Damon said. "We know the Cubs have some great fans and we had a lot of fans that traveled here to see us."

Torre had little to enjoy about his return to St. Louis, the final stop on what has been a dismal road trip.

The Cardinals' manager from 1990-95 and the NL MVP in 1971 while playing for them, Torre watched his old team build a 7-0 lead in the first three innings off New York's Chien-Ming Wang (3-2).

Pujols hit his 15th homer in the sixth, a drive to center estimated at 415 feet.

At Denver, Jamey Wright pitched six-hit ball into the eighth inning and Garrett Atkins hit a two-run homer off Mike Maroth (4-7) as Colorado and Detroit matched the lowest-scoring game in Coors Field's 11-year history - it was done twice before.

At Cincinnati, Melvin Mora hit a three-run homer off Aaron Harang (4-4) in Baltimore's first visit to Cincinnati since the 1970 World Series.

At Washington, Brian Schneider hit a go-ahead two-run single, and the Nationals took advantage of five walks in the eighth inning to break open a tie game for their eighth consecutive victory.

At New York, Steve Finley and Darin Erstad each homered to help Bartolo Colon (8-3) win his fourth straight decision. Orlando Cabrera added a three-run shot in the ninth.

At Atlanta, Eric Chavez hit a tie-breaking, two-run homer in the seventh inning and Oakland snapped an 11-game road losing streak.

At Houston, Willy Taveras, Morgan Ensberg and Jason Lane homered and Wandy Rodriguez (2-2) pitched out of several jams over six-plus shaky innings.

At Miami, reliever Doug Brocail (3-1) walked Luis Castillo on four pitches to force in the go-ahead run in the eighth inning and Mike Lowell hit a grand slam one out later.

At San Diego, Jon Garland pitched seven strong innings to join Dontrelle Willis as the only 10-game winners in the major leagues. Garland (10-2) also got his first career RBI with a single to right field.

At San Francisco, C.C. Sabathia (5-3) allowed five hits in eight innings and also hit a two-run double off Brett Tomko (5-8) in Cleveland's first trip to San Francisco.

At Los Angeles, Hee-Seop Choi hit his second homer of the game off Terry Mulholland (0-2) in the ninth inning to give the Dodgers a victory over Minnesota in the teams' first meeting since the 1965 World Series.

At Phoenix, Troy Glaus led off the 10th inning with a home run against Mike MacDougal (2-3). It came after the Arizona bullpen blew an eight-run lead in the last two innings.runs.

At Philadelphia, David Bell's three-run homer with one out in the ninth inning led the Phillies to their 13th win in 15 games. Jim Thome added a two-run homer for the Phillies.