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Cardinals maintain charge with victory over Braves
2007-08-27
The St Louis Cardinals continued their assault on the National League Central Division pennant with a 4-1 victory over the slumping Atlanta Braves on Sunday. The World Series champions raised their record to 63-64 and are just one win away from reaching the .500 mark for the first time since April 16 when they were 6-6. The latest success moved the Cardinals to just a half-game behind the second-place Milwaukee Brewers and two adrift of the Chicago Cubs, maintaining a run that has seen St Louis chip away at the leaders since they were 10 games behind on June 30. "We've still got a ways to go but we've played ourselves back into contention," St Louis pitchers Adam Wainwright told reporters after raising his record to 12-9. Juan Encarnacion homered for St Louis as the Cardinals sent the sagging Braves to their fifth loss in six games. Wainright is 5-2 since the All-Star break. He went seven innings on Sunday, allowing one run on six hits, while walking one and striking out five. Jason Isringhausen picked up his 27th save. *Chris Young homered in the first and second innings to help the NL West-leading Arizona Diamondbacks score a 5-4 road win over the Chicago Cubs. Jose Valverde had his Major League-leading 40th save for the Diamondbacks, who lead the Padres by four games. The teams open a four-game series in San Diego on Monday. *Ryan Howard hit his 34th homer and drove in four runs to help Philadelphia register a 14-2 home rout of the Padres, snapping the Phillies' four-game losing streak. The Phillies trail the Padres by three games in the NL wild card race. *The East-leading New York Mets failed to close out a three-game weekend sweep when they dropped a 6-2 home decision against the Los Angeles Dodgers. David Wells, just signed by the Dodgers after being released by San Diego, pitched five innings for the win and started a two-run rally with a bunt single as New York's lead over Philadelphia in the East dropped to six games. The teams start a four-game series in Philadelphia on Monday. *The slumping Milwaukee Brewers lost their fourth straight game and the seventh in their last 10, blowing a three-run lead as the San Francisco Giants completed a three-game home sweep with a 5-4 win. Milwaukee (65-65) fell back to the .500 mark with the loss and is 9-21 in its last 30 games.
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