NL roundup: Rockies avoid Giants' sweep

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Jorge De La Rosa pitched eight scoreless innings to win his sixth straight start against San Francisco and Troy Tulowitzki homered to help Colorado avoid a three-game sweep with a 4-3 victory Wednesday night.

Ian Stewart homered for the Rockies, who had lost four straight games, including the first two in this series. That helped the Giants shave three games off Colorado's wild-card lead. But with De La Rosa (15-9) outpitching All-Star Matt Cain (13-6), Colorado leaves town with a 3 1/2-game lead over San Francisco in the NL wild-card race.

The Giants mounted a furious rally in the ninth, but Rafael Betancourt struck out Nate Schierholtz for his first save since being acquired from Cleveland in July.

Tulowitzki led off the fourth with his 27th homer for a 1-0 lead. Clint Barmes added an RBI double in the inning and Stewart's two-run shot in the sixth made it 4-0.

Dodgers 3, Pirates 1

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Matt Kemp hit a go-ahead, two-run homer in the sixth inning, and Ronnie Belliard added a solo shot as Los Angeles completed a three-game sweep.

Los Angeles began the day with a five-game lead over Colorado in the NL West - its largest since being 5 1/2 games up on the Rockies on Sept. 1.

Kemp sent an 0-2 pitch from Kevin Hart (1-6) for his 24th homer, giving the Dodgers a 2-1 lead en route to their 38th comeback win of the season.

Hiroki Kuroda (7-6) gave up one run and six hits, struck out seven and walked none in his third start since returning from the disabled list after being hit on the right side of his head by a comebacker at Arizona on Aug. 15.

Jonathan Broxton pitched a perfect ninth for his 35th save.

Hart allowed two runs and seven hits in six innings, losing his fifth consecutive start.

Phillies 6, Nationals 1

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Joe Blanton threw six scoreless innings and Jayson Werth hit a grand slam for Philadelphia.

Blanton (10-7) allowed five hits and struck out seven. The Phillies were one out away from recording three consecutive shutouts for the first time in 40 years when Willie Harris singled in a run off Tyler Walker.

The NL East-leading Phillies reduced their magic number for clinching their third straight division title to 11 with 18 games remaining.

Livan Hernandez (8-11) allowed two runs and seven hits in six innings. The Nationals are 3-14 against Philadelphia this season.

Werth hit his third career grand slam and second this year in the seventh off Jason Bergman.

Marlins 5, Cardinals 2

ST. LOUIS (AP) - Josh Johnson gave up one run and nine hits over six innings and Cody Ross had three hits and drove in two runs for Florida, which has won 10 of 14.

Johnson (15-4) struck out five in his 23rd quality start of the season.

Marlins closer Leo Nunez came in with one out and two on. He hit Ryan Ludwick and Albert Pujols to force in a run before getting Matt Holliday to hit into a game-ending double play for his 22nd save.

Central-leading St. Louis fell to 1-5 on its nine-game homestand.

Joel Pineiro (14-11) gave up four runs and 10 hits in 5 1-3 innings for St. Louis.

Braves 6, Mets 5

ATLANTA (AP) - Atlanta took advantage of first baseman Daniel Murphy's error to score two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning off Francisco Rodriguez for its season-best sixth straight win.

With the game tied and runners on first and second with two outs, former Met Ryan Church hit a grounder to first. The in-between hopper hit off a charging Murphy, who failed to catch the deflection, which gave David Ross time to score the winning run from second.

Rodriguez (3-5) gave up one hit in the ninth but couldn't hold a 5-4 lead. It was his sixth blown save in 37 chances.

Omir Santos gave New York the lead with his first career pinch-hit homer in the eighth off Mike Gonzalez, who recorded only one out before leaving the game with a stiff back.

Eric O'Flaherty (2-1) pitched the ninth for the win in a game whose start was delayed by rain for 1 hour, 56 minutes.

Padres 6, Diamondbacks 5, 10 innings

SAN DIEGO (AP) - Everth Cabrera's RBI single in the bottom of 10th gave San Diego the victory.

Cabrera's third hit of the game was a grounder into right off Yusmeiro Petit (3-10).

Luis Durango, making his first career start, opened the 10th with his third infield single, the others on bunts.

Heath Bell (6-4) pitched the 10th for the win.

San Diego's Adrian Gonzalez, pinch-hitting for his brother Edgar, hit a two-run homer in the ninth off Esmerling Vasquez to tie the score at 5. It was Gonzalez's first career pinch-hit homer.

Justin Upton had a career-high five hits for Arizona and fell a home run short of the cycle.

Arizona's Mark Reynolds, who set the Major League record with 204 strikeouts last season, struck out four times to reach 200 this season.

Reds 6, Astros 5

CINCINNATI (AP) - Joey Votto scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch in the seventh inning and Cincinnati overcame Jeff Keppinger's first career multihomer game.

In a game that featured seven solo homers in the first five innings, Votto led off the seventh against Wesley Wright (3-3) with an infield single and went to third on a single by Brandon Phillips. Jeff Fulchino relieved Wright with Chris Coste going in at catcher in a double switch. Fulchino bounced a pitch that Coste couldn't handle, allowing Votto to break a 5-5 tie.

Jared Burton (1-0) retired all five batters he faced for the win. Francisco Cordero worked the ninth for his 37th save.

Keppinger had two of Houston's five solo homers - all off Reds starter Justin Lehr - but the Astros lost their fourth straight.

Brewers 9, Cubs 5

CHICAGO (AP) - Braden Looper pitched five innings for his career-high 13th win and Alcides Escobar went 4 for 5 with three RBIs for Milwaukee.

Looper (13-6), who won 12 games in each of the two previous seasons with St. Louis, allowed five runs and nine hits, including a two-run homer by Aramis Ramirez in the fifth, and walked three.

The Brewers had 13 hits and drove Chicago starter Rich Harden (9-9) out after three innings. Harden gave up five hits, five runs - two earned - and three walks, throwing 71 pitches in his short outing.

Escobar's four hits and three RBIs were career highs.