With his slumping team down three runs in the sixth inning, Arizona manager Bob Melvin started making notes for a postgame pep talk. "It didn't look good early on," Melvin said. "As a matter of fact, I was drawing up a little speech for after the game." The Diamondbacks spared him the trouble, rallying for a 4-3 victory on Adam Dunn's winning double in the ninth.

Adam Wainwright refuses to count St. Louis out of the playoff race. If he hadn't missed 2 1/2 months of the season, his Cardinals might be a whole lot closer. Wainwright helped himself by doubling in two runs, and Troy Glaus hit one of St. Louis' three homers Tuesday night in an 8-2 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

In black magic marker, a scuffed baseball told the details of the biggest game of Stephen Drew's career. Five hits and a cycle -- the first in Chase Field history. The Arizona Diamondbacks needed every hit in an 8-6 comeback victory over St. Louis on Monday. "I'm kind of in shock right now," said Drew, who carried his keepsake baseball into the postgame interview room.

Meet Carlos Lee Jr. No, not the actual son of injured slugger Carlos Lee, but the man who stepped in for the left fielder and supplied the power the Astros were sorely missing once Lee fractured his pinky on Aug. 10. That would be Ty Wigginton, who hit his 12th home run of August to help the Astros beat the St.

A three-run deficit doesn't scare a team that's playing its best baseball of the season. That's why the Houston Astros didn't panic when they got behind by three in the first inning. Ty Wigginton and Hunter Pence hit home runs during a six-run first inning and the Houston Astros held on for an 8-5 win over the St.

Lance Berkman was starting to wonder if he would ever hit a game-ending home run. He finally delivered on Friday night. The five-time All-Star hit a game-ending solo shot off former teammate Russ Springer to lift the Houston Astros to a 3-2 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday night. Berkman had 285 career homers before Friday's game, the most by any active player without one that ended a game.

Spurred by the antics of an overly excited Milwaukee Brewers reliever, the St. Louis Cardinals jumped back into the wild-card scrum. Carlos Villanueva's arm-raising, in-your-face gesture after escaping a bases-loaded jam in the seventh woke up the Cardinals against a team that's handled them all year, leading to a four-run rally in the eighth inning of a 5-3 victory against the Brewers on Wednesday...

Finally, Ben Sheets had the upper hand against the St. Louis Cardinals. He picked a perfect time to best a team that has given him fits, beating them in a game with postseason implications. Sheets worked six scoreless innings in a 12-0 victory Tuesday night that provided some breathing room for the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL wild card race.

After Albert Pujols homered and singled his first two at-bats, giving him eight hits and eight RBIs in 10 weekend chances, the Braves removed him from the equation. Not soon enough to keep the Cardinals' star from shaving Chipper Jones' once seemingly insurmountable lead for the batting title to mere percentage points, and helping St.

The Atlanta Braves have no intentions of giving up this season. Pinch-hitter Greg Norton delivered a tiebreaking single with two outs in the eighth inning, and Atlanta beat the St. Louis Cardinals 8-4 on Saturday to snap a six-game losing streak. "Hopefully, the fans can sit back and watch us today because we're busting our butts," Jeff Francoeur said.

Adam Wainwright breezed through the Atlanta Braves' lineup like a pitcher in midseason form instead of a guy who had been out 2 1/2 months. An offense that racked up its most hits since the Gashouse Gang was in its prime made the return of their opening-day starter a complete success. "It wasn't fantastic, but it's something I can build on for sure, and I'm glad to be back out here, which is the...