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 Scott Hairston hit a two-out, three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth to give the Padres a thrilling 5-3 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates.
"We just told ourselves to separate each inning, go out there, never give up," Hairston said.
For the second night in a row at Denver, the Rockies hit a late two-run homer to rally past the Dodgers. Brad Hawpe hit the go-ahead shot in the eighth off Jonathan Broxton and the Rockies stayed alive in the wild-card chase with a 6-5 win over Los Angeles, a night after Todd Helton hit a game-winner in the ninth off closer Takashi Saito.
"This is special," Hawpe said.
Milwaukee got a ninth-inning homer too, when Rickie Weeks hit one out to tie the game against the Astros at 4. An inning later, however, Hunter Pence singled home the game-winner as Houston won in 10, 5-4.
Yadier Molina drove in the winning run at St. Louis, as the Cardinals beat Philadelphia 2-1 in 10 innings.
In other NL games, it was: New York 8, Washington 4; Arizona 6, San Francisco 4; Chicago 3, Cincinnati 2; and Atlanta 5, Florida 1.
At San Diego, the Padres were trailing 3-2 in the ninth and in danger of falling two games behind Arizona.
Against Pirates closer Matt Capps (4-7), Adrian Gonzalez doubled with one out and Kevin Kouzmanoff drew a two-out walk. Hairston followed with his eighth home run, and was met by a wild celebration at home plate.
"There is no quit in this team," Gonzalez said. "We've won a number of games like this and we believe in each other."
With the win, the Padres extended their lead in the wild-card race to 2 1/2 games over the Phillies, 4 1/2 over the Rockies. The Dodgers, within 2 1/2 games three days ago, slipped to 5 1/2 back.
The Rockies made sure of that, rallying off Broxton (4-4), who struck Hawpe out Tuesday night. Hawpe learned his lesson; when Broxton shook off catcher Russell Martin on a 3-2 pitch, Hawpe figured he was going to throw the slider.
He figured right.
"I made a mistake and paid for it," Broxton said.
Said Hawpe: "I thought it was gone as soon as I hit it. If it hadn't gone out, I would've been pretty upset."
Matt Holliday hit two solo home runs off Brad Penny, giving him a career-high 35 homers this season. Holliday has 10 homers in his past 11 games.
The Rockies are eight games over .500 for the first time since July 6, 2000. They still believe there's time to sneak into the postseason.
"Why not?" Hawpe said. "We're still within good striking distance. If we didn't feel like that, we wouldn't have won the last two games. We've worked hard for this."
At Houston, Weeks homered in the ninth off Astros closer Brad Lidge to force extra innings. Pence slammed into the wall chasing the drive and crumpled to the ground. He got up after a few minutes and stayed in the game.
"It just kind of knocked the wind out of me, a little whiplash, kind of a car wreck," Pence said. "I just couldn't move there for a second. But once I caught my breath, I was fine."
Pence had to convince Houston manager Cecil Cooper he was OK from the collision.
"I was close to taking him out," Cooper said.
In the 10th, Pence fouled off the first 3-2 pitch he saw from Matt Wise (3-2), then lined the next one into left field to bring home Brandon Backe.
The Brewers, who had won four in a row and were tied for first in the NL Central, fell a game behind Chicago
-- the Cubs beat Cincinnati 3-2.
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"Any time you lose a game, it's tough to watch," said Milwaukee starter Dave Bush, who pitched six innings. "There's a lot more at stake now, so it's even tougher."
The Phillies were looking for a second straight extra-inning win over the Cardinals. Molina had other ideas.
Molina singled home the winning run with two outs in the 10th inning, snapping Philadelphia's six-game winning streak and dropping the Phillies 2 1/2 games back of the NL East-leading Mets.
"We had all kinds of chances," manager Charlie Manuel said. "We just couldn't get the big hit. A couple of times all we needed was a fly ball. We just couldn't do it." The Phillies were 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position.
Chase Utley was stranded after his one-out triple in the eighth, Jimmy Rollins grounded out with runners on second and third ending the ninth, and Randy Flores (3-0) struck out Aaron Rowand and Jayson Werth with runners on first and second to end the 10th.
"I think we've got an 8-2 run in us, I sure do," Manuel said. "We've got to keep going. Eighty-nine or 90 wins will get us something."
Mets 8, Nationals 4
At Washington, David Wright drove in three runs, Moises Alou had three hits and New York ended a five-game losing streak that cut their lead in the NL East to 1 1/2 games.
Mike Pelfrey (3-7) allowed three runs in five-plus innings to win his third consecutive decision.
Matt Chico (5-9) gave up five runs in 5 1-3 innings.
Diamondbacks 6, Giants 4
At Phoenix, Conor Jackson homered, Chris Snyder had three hits and three RBIs and Arizona overcame a poor start by Doug Davis to keep up their march toward the playoffs.
Juan Cruz (6-1) earned the victory by striking out the only batter he faced in the fifth, when he relieved Davis with two out and two on.
Barry Zito (9-13) allowed five runs and was lifted after the first four men reached in the fifth inning.
Cubs 3, Reds 2
At Chicago, Alfonso Soriano homered, and Chicago reclaimed first place in the NL Central with another dramatic victory.
Ken Griffey Jr. left the game with a lower abdominal strain.
Bob Howry (6-7) got the win.
Braves 5, Marlins 1
At Atlanta, Edgar Renteria had three hits, including a homer, Chipper Jones had two hits and drove in a run and Chuck James (11-10) allowed two hits in seven scoreless innings as Atlanta completed a three-game sweep of last-place Florida.
The Braves (79-73) have won four straight to match the win total from last year's 79-83 team.
[Associated Press]
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
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