Cardinals 7, Astros 3
HOUSTON (AP) - Mark DeRosa homered twice and St. Louis beat Houston 7-3 on Monday night, a few hours after the Astros fired manager Cecil Cooper.
Third-base coach Dave Clark was named Houston's interim manager for the last two weeks of the regular season, but the Astros lost their eighth straight game in Clark's major-league managing debut.
DeRosa also had a two-run double for the Cardinals, who reduced their magic number for winning the NL Central to three.
Kyle Lohse (6-8) allowed three runs and five hits in six innings to earn his first win since Aug. 10.
Houston starter Wandy Rodriguez (13-11) had given up no more than one run in 11 of his previous 14 starts, but trailed 3-0 after the first inning in this one.
DeRosa drove in two with a double off the right-field wall in the first. He added a homer in the third off Rodriguez, who came in with a 1.58 ERA at home this season. DeRosa led off the sixth with a homer off Chad Paronto.
Giants 5, Diamondbacks 4
PHOENIX (AP) - Pinch-hitter Fred Lewis beat out a double-play grounder with the bases loaded to drive in the go-ahead run in the eighth inning for San Francisco.
The victory moved the Giants within four games of idle Colorado in the NL wild-card chase with 12 games to play.
Mark Reynolds drove in two runs with his 43rd homer of the season and Justin Upton's single scored the other two for Arizona.
Pablo Sandoval doubled and singled for the Giants, who took advantage of three Diamondbacks errors.
Brian Wilson allowed one hit in the ninth and earned his 35th save.
Reliever Esmerling Vasquez (3-3) allowed Lewis' run-scoring grounder in the eighth.
Sergio Romo (5-2) pitched 2-3 of an inning to get the victory.
Braves 11, Mets 3
NEW YORK (AP) - Chipper Jones homered and drove in four runs to lead Atlanta.
Garret Anderson and Matt Diaz also connected for the Braves, who have won nine of 11 to keep a grip on their faint playoff hopes. They moved within five games of idle Colorado for the NL wild-card lead with 12 games left.
Atlanta opened a six-game trip with its most runs since it set a season high in a 15-2 win at New York on Aug. 19. Martin Prado had three hits, Nate McLouth scored three times and Derek Lowe (15-9) pitched five innings to help the Braves improve to 11-5 against the Mets this season.
Daniel Murphy homered and Luis Castillo had two hits for New York, which has lost seven of nine.
Atlanta jumped all over Pat Misch (1-4), scoring four times in each of the first two innings.
Cubs 10, Brewers 2
MILWAUKEE (AP) - Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez hit back-to-back homers and Tom Gorzelanny tied a career high with nine strikeouts for Chicago.
Lee drove in four runs and Ramirez drove in two more for the Cubs, who won for the second time since general manager Jim Hendry suspended volatile outfielder Milton Bradley for the season on Sunday.
Bradley's replacement on the roster, Tyler Colvin, made his first career start, driving in a run with a sacrifice fly his first time up as the Cubs built a 7-0 lead in the second. Colvin also got his first major league hit in the third.
Mike Cameron hit two solo homers off Gorzelanny (6-2), who pitched five solid innings.
Chicago's first four batters of the game reached and scored against Braden Looper (13-7).
Padres 11, Pirates 6, 11 innings
PITTSBURGH (AP) - Chase Headley's career-high fifth hit of the game drove in the go-ahead run in the 11th inning for San Diego in its third straight win over Pittsburgh.
Headley hit his third double of the game off Jeff Karstens (3-5) in the 11th to drive in Everth Cabrera and give the Padres, who saw their bullpen blow a 6-2 lead in the eighth inning, their eighth win in 12 games.
Headley hit his 12th homer, and Adrian Gonzalez and Nick Hundley also hit home runs for San Diego. Oscar Salazar added a two-run double, Hundley a sacrifice fly and Tony Gwynn a run-scoring single later in the 11th.
Headley went 5 for 6 with two runs and two RBIs, and Salazar and Hundley both had three RBIs.
Sean Gallagher (2-0) earned the win with a scoreless 10th.
Rookie Garrett Jones hit his 20th home run for last-place Pittsburgh, which has lost 20 of 23. The Pirates tied the game in the ninth on Ronny Cedeno's groundout off Heath Bell, who failed to earn his league-leading 40th save by blowing his sixth opportunity of the season.