Cardinals' lead almost gone as Reds close

After a 3 game wipeout in New York, the St. Louis Cardinals' NL Central lead was all but gone. <br/><br/>Carlos Delgado homered for the 4th time in 4 games, and the Mets completed a sweep with a 6-2

Friday, August 25th 2006, 5:48 am

By: News On 6

After a 3 game wipeout in New York, the St. Louis Cardinals' NL Central lead was all but gone.

Carlos Delgado homered for the 4th time in 4 games, and the Mets completed a sweep with a 6-2 victory Thursday night that extended their winning streak to 7.

2nd place Cincinnati closed within .0004 of the Cardinals, rallying from a 3 run deficit to beat the San Francisco Giants 6-3 behind David Ross' tiebreaking solo homer in the 8th inning.

"A big win,'' Ross said. "When there are so many teams in it, it's nice to gain ground on anybody. What everybody's worrying about in here is taking care of ourselves at this point.''

St. Louis (66-60), which had a 5 1/2-game division lead after play July 26, has lost 18 of 26, allowing Cincinnati (67-61) to close. Cardinals manager Tony La Russa held a 20 minute team meeting after the game.

"I had planned to say something to them about the final push,'' he said. "This is the time I chose to say it. The way I look at it, optimistically or otherwise, is we are in contention. It hasn't been the most consistent we've been in recent years, but we are in contention and I'm excited about it.''

In other NL games, it was: Pittsburgh 5, Houston 3; Milwaukee 12, Colorado 6; and Chicago 11, Philadelphia 2.

At New York, Shawn Green had an RBI single in his debut for the Mets, who have won 11 straight at Shea Stadium, their longest home winning streak since September 1995.

New York (78-48) moved to 30 games over .500 for the first time since 1999 and leads 2nd place Philadelphia by 14 1/2 games in the NL East.

Dave Williams (3-3) allowed 2 runs and 7 hits in 6 1-3 innings, and Roberto Hernandez and Guillermo Mota combined for perfect relief.

Jason Marquis (13-12) gave up 5 runs, 7 hits and 4 walks in 6 innings.

Reds 6, Giants 3

At San Francisco, Ross' homer against Vinnie Chulk (0-2) gave the Reds a 4-3 lead in the opener of a season long 10 game trip against contending NL West teams, and Juan Castro added a 2 run single in the 9th off Mike Stanton.

Ryan Franklin (5-6) got the final out in the 7th, and David Weathers pitched the 9th for his 10th save. The Reds have a 1 1/2 game lead over San Diego in the wild card race and are 2 1/2 games in front of Philadelphia.

San Francisco trails NL West leading Los Angeles by 4 1/2 games are is 5 back in the wild card chase.

Pirates 5, Astros 3

The fading Astros lost for the 10th time in 13 games, but Willy Taveras extended his club record hitting streak to 27 games.

Paul Maholm (6-10) worked his way through a shaky first 3 innings to earn the victory for Pittsburgh, which has won 3 straight. Maholm gave up 3 runs and 7 hits in 6 2-3 innings, and Mike Gonzalez worked the 9th for his 24th save.

Wandy Rodriguez (9-8) gave up 5 runs and 8 hits in 5 1-3 innings, remaining winless since July 2.

Brewers 12, Rockies 6

Tomo Ohka (4-3) drove in a career high 4 runs batting left handed for the first time in his major league career, and Prince Fielder hit a 3 run homer to send visiting Colorado to its 6th straight loss.

Ohka, a right handed pitcher, drove in runs in his 3 plate appearances on a catcher's interference call, a 2 run single on a slow roller and an RBI single. Hitting right handed, Ohka is a .130 batter in his career (30-for-230) with 11 RBIs.

Josh Fogg (9-8) gave up 8 runs, 8 hits and walks in 4 2-3 innings and hit 2 batters.

Cubs 11, Phillies 2

Aramis Ramirez homered and tripled at Wrigley Field, and Chicago hit 4 homers in stopping Philadelphia's 5 game winning streak.

Michael Barrett hit a 2 run homer, Angel Pagan added a 3 run drive, and Ramirez and Phil Nevin hit back to back solo shots as the Cubs broke a 4 game losing streak.

Carlos Zambrano (14-5) became the NL's first 14 game winner, allowing 2 runs and 6 hits in 7 innings.

Cole Hamels (6-7) gave up a season high 9 runs, 5 earned and 9 hits, which matched his season high.