Padres Hand Giants a Loss

Mark Loretta hit a bases-loaded sacrifice fly with one out in the 10th inning, and the San Diego Padres beat San Francisco, 4-3, Wednesday night at Petco Park to knock the Giants out of first in the wild-card race.

The Padres didn’t have a hit in their winning rally, which was aided by two Giant errors. San Francisco right fielder Dustan Mohr tripped over the mound in the Giant bullpen down the right-field line as he caught Loretta’s fly ball, and appeared to injure a knee. He remained on the ground for several minutes.

The Giants and Chicago Cubs had been tied for the wild-card lead going into Wednesday’s games, but they both lost, allowing Houston to take the lead by a half-game after beating St. Louis.

The Giants remained three games behind the Dodgers in the National League West.

The Padres started the winning rally when Ramon Hernandez reached on third baseman Edgardo Alfonzo’s throwing error. Freddy Guzman pinch-ran for Hernandez, and took third when catcher Yorvit Torrealba bounced a throw past first baseman Pedro Feliz for an error on Kerry Robinson’s sacrifice. Ramon Vazquez was intentionally walked to load the bases.

With the infield playing in, Guzman was forced at home on Jay Payton’s grounder to second. That brought up Loretta.

Houston 6, St. Louis 4 -- Jeff Bagwell, Jeff Kent and Roger Clemens pushed the Astros even closer to a playoff berth and into the wild-card lead.

Bagwell drove in two runs and Kent hit his 300th career homer, sending the Astros to their club-record 15th consecutive home victory.

“We’ve certainly made it interesting for everybody,� Clemens said. “We’ll take where we are right now and hope it’s enough to get us in the playoffs.�

Clemens was denied his 19th win -- and almost certainly a chance at his seventh 20-win season -- when he left with the score tied, 4-4, after the sixth.

But Bagwell had a run-scoring single in the seventh and Lance Berkman followed with a run-scoring double to help the Astros break their home winning streak record set in 1980.

Kent became the 105th player to reach 300 homers with his second-inning shot off Jeff Suppan. He joined Tino Martinez, Edgar Martinez, Chipper Jones, Ruben Sierra, Jim Edmonds and Vinny Castilla in reaching that mark this season.

Cincinnati 4, Chicago 3 -- One strike from a key victory, the Cubs wound up with yet another agonizing defeat at Chicago.

Austin Kearns tied the score with a two-out double in the ninth inning on an 0-and-2 pitch from closer LaTroy Hawkins.

Kearns then hit a two-run homer in the 12th as the Reds sent the Cubs to their fourth loss in five games.

“The last couple of times out it’s like we and Hawk, we’ve got -- boy it seems like -- the two-out, two-strike blues,� Cub Manager Dusty Baker said.

Chicago has four games remaining -- one more with the Reds today before concluding the regular season with a three-game series at home against NL East-champion Atlanta.

“It’s frustrating, but you can’t dwell on it. You have to come back tomorrow,� said Hawkins, booed as he walked off the field.

Hawkins blew his ninth save in 33 chances and third in the last five appearances.

Philadelphia 8-8, Pittsburgh 4-3 -- Chase Utley had three hits and two runs batted in, and the host Phillies rallied with a six-run seventh inning to complete a doubleheader sweep.

In the opener, Todd Pratt hit a three-run homer as the Phillies clinched consecutive winning seasons for the first time in 21 years.

Milwaukee 4, Arizona 1 -- Geoff Jenkins homered and drove in two runs at Phoenix.

Atlanta 6, New York 3 -- Bobby Cox became the ninth manager in baseball history to win 2,000 games when the Braves won at Atlanta.