No Homer for Bonds; Cards Beat Padres

Barry Bonds went 0-for-3 as he tried to break Hank Aaron's home run record. The St. Louis Cardinals, however, had a very successful night against David Wells and the San Diego Padres. <br/><br/>Bonds

Tuesday, August 7th 2007, 7:45 am

By: News On 6

Barry Bonds went 0-for-3 as he tried to break Hank Aaron's home run record. The St. Louis Cardinals, however, had a very successful night against David Wells and the San Diego Padres.

Bonds left San Francisco's game against Washington after seven innings, still .tied with Aaron at 755 career homers. The Giants went on to beat the Nationals 3-2 in 11 innings on Monday night.

``We're going to see something that's never been done,'' Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. ``It's intense. It's anticipation. Everybody's watching every pitch. You see the flashes going off. Only Barry knows what he's going through. I can only imagine.''

The Cardinals tied a major league record with 10 straight hits in a 10-run fifth inning, with pitcher Braden Looper and Aaron Miles getting two apiece in a 10-5 victory over the Padres.

``That's momentum like I've never seen before,'' said Ryan Ludwick, who homered in the big fifth. ``It's just an incredible inning.''

In the other two NL games, Colorado beat Milwaukee 6-2, and Houston edged the Chicago Cubs 2-1 in 10 innings.

Looper (9-9) opened the inning with a single to center and then with the Cardinals up 8-3 bunted for another hit. Miles followed Looper twice with singles, the latter driving in a run.

The streak was broken when David Eckstein hit a sacrifice fly and So Taguchi ended the inning by grounding into a double play.

Scott Rolen's three-run homer was the biggest hit, putting St. Louis ahead 7-3 and chasing Wells. Mike Thompson entered, and Ludwick homered on his first pitch.

The Cardinals ended a five-game losing streak during which they were outscored 41-11 by lower-rung Pittsburgh and Washington. They had six straight hits with runners in scoring position in the inning after going 6-for-44 on their just completed 1-5 trip.

``I don't know where that came from,'' manager Tony La Russa said. ``It was really impressive.''

The 44-year-old Wells is 0-3 with a 14.33 ERA in his last four starts, the longest of the bunch lasting 5 1-3 innings. The Padres lost a four-game winning streak, one off their season best, and fell two games behind idle Arizona in the NL West.

Manager Bud Black thought Wells had been more unlucky than off.

``I thought David's stuff was fine,'' Black said. ``I think the only balls hit hard that inning were the single by (Juan) Encarnacion and then Rolen's home run was hit well, but prior to that every hit was a seeing eye base hit.''

In San Francisco, Bonds fouled out to third base in the first inning, walked in the third, grounded into a double play in the fifth and struck out in the seventh before leaving.

Randy Winn hit a bases-loaded single with one out in the 11th inning for the Giants. Ray King (1-1) was charged with the loss.

Brad Hennessey (2-3) pitched a scoreless 11th for the win, stopping the Giants' three-game losing streak and Washington's six-game winning streak.

Rockies 6, Brewers 2

Brad Hawpe and Matt Holliday homered to lead Colorado over Milwaukee, which has lost 10 of 14 games but still leads the NL Central by one over Chicago.

Prince Fielder hit his league-leading 33rd homer and Ryan Braun also connected for visiting Milwaukee.

The Rockies scored four runs off Claudio Vargas (9-4) in the first inning. Todd Helton singled in a run and Hawpe hit a three-run homer, his 19th of the season.

Vargas gave up six runs and 12 hits in seven innings.

Fielder homered in the second but Holliday responded with a two-run drive in the bottom half.

Braun homered in the fourth, his 21st.

Josh Fogg (6-7) went seven innings for the Rockies, allowing six hits and two runs.

Astros 2, Cubs 1, 10 innings

Eric Munson hit an RBI single in the bottom of the 10th to give Houston the victory.

Chicago threatened in the 10th against Brad Lidge (3-1) when Jason Kendall led off with a single, took second on a sacrifice and advanced on a flyout. Lidge struck out Cliff Floyd.

Ty Wigginton was walked by Michael Wuertz (2-3) to start the bottom half. After a sacrifice and a flyout, Wuertz threw a wild pitch and Munson singled to right.

Ryan Theriot doubled twice for the visiting Cubs, who have lost four of five.

Wandy Rodriguez struck out a career-high nine for the Astros, who had lost six of their previous nine. Rodriguez gave up one run and four hits in eight innings.

Rich Hill allowed one run and three hits in seven innings for Chicago.