Cardinals Hold Off Cubs

With Scott Rolen’s bat and Jim Edmonds’ arm, the St. Louis Cardinals didn’t need Albert Pujols.

Rolen made up for the ailing Pujols’ absence with a three-run homer, Edmonds threw out what would have been the tying run and the Cardinals held on to beat the Cubs, 4-3, Monday night at Chicago for their 10th victory in 12 games.

“It doesn’t matter how you do it or when you do it as long as it gets done,” said Rolen, who has a major league-best 60 runs batted in. “We put them all together right there in that inning.”

Reggie Sanders also homered for the Cardinals, and Chris Carpenter (7-1) tied his career-best with his sixth straight win. He gave up three runs and nine hits in 8 1/3 innings, striking out six and walking none.

Pujols sat out the game because of a sore hamstring.

San Francisco 10, Colorado 5 -- Pedro Feliz homered twice and Yorvit Torrealba hit a three-run homer that staked the Giants to a five-run lead in the first inning at Denver.

INTERLEAGUE GAMES

Oakland 13, Cincinnati 2 -- Mark Mulder stalled Ken Griffey Jr.’s run for 500 homers at Oakland.

Scott Hatteberg, Mark Kotsay, Erubiel Durazo and Damian Miller homered for the A’s.

Rookie Bobby Crosby had his second straight three-hit game and Hatteberg had a career-high five RBIs as Oakland improved to 13-0 against the NL Central.

Texas 6, Pittsburgh 5 -- Hank Blalock hit an RBI single with two out in the 10th inning at Arlington, Texas.

Blalock’s looper to center, on a full-count pitch from Mike Johnston (0-3), dropped in front of charging outfielder Tike Redman to score Laynce Nix. The Pirates lost for the eighth time in nine games despite scoring more than three runs for the first time in that span.

Seattle 5, Houston 0 -- Clint Nageotte pitched six shutout innings at Seattle in his first major league start. Scott Spiezio had a solo homer, two singles and two RBIs for the Mariners.