Padres soar; Cardinals fade
ST. LOUIS -- Things have gone so sour for the St. Louis Cardinals that even their ace is coming up empty.
Mike Cameron's two-run double capped San Diego's four-run seventh inning against Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter, and free-falling St. Louis saw its lead in the NL Central shrink to 1 1/2 games following the Padres' 7-5 victory last night.
San Diego's magic number to clinch the NL West is down to four after its sixth straight win.
Ronnie Belliard homered twice and had three RBIs for the Cardinals, who also got a two-run single from Jim Edmonds in his first start in a month after being sidelined with post-concussion syndrome. It didn't prevent them from losing their seventh in a row because Carpenter (15-8) failed to protect a three-run lead.
``This is a time when we need to start winning ball games," Carpenter said. ``Unfortunately, I couldn't come up with a big pitch when I had to."
St. Louis appeared to have all but clinched the division title with a seven-game lead and 13 games to go. But the Cardinals' skid has coincided with a winning streak for the Houston Astros, who beat Pittsburgh, 7-4, for their seventh victory in a row.
Woody Williams (11-5) won his fourth straight game with six solid innings for the Padres, who have a two-game lead over the Dodgers with five games remaining. Cameron had two hits and three RBIs and Josh Bard, a late substitution at catcher when Mike Piazza decided he wanted a day off yesterday instead of today, was 3 for 4 with a two-run double in the seventh.
Trevor Hoffman got the last three outs for his major league-leading 44th save in 49 chances and the 480th of his career. Hoffman struck out Belliard with a runner on second for the final out.
Carpenter, the NL Cy Young winner last year and among the front-runners again this season, struggled in losing his second straight start. He labored through 120 pitches in seven innings, allowing six runs on 12 hits.
He had been 5-0 in a span of eight starts before faltering in the last two in which he's given up 12 earned runs in 15 innings to hike his ERA to 3.09. He had been 8-3 with a major league-leading 1.46 ERA at home before getting smacked around by the Padres, who have won nine of 11 and at 17-7 have the majors' best winning percentage in September.
