Worley keeps Phillies on roll

Baseball roundup

Rookie wins 10th in sweep of Reds

September 02, 2011|Associated Press

Anthony Recker of the Athletics is forced at second base by high-stepping… (Jason Miller/Getty Images )

The Philadelphia Phillies just reached a number they haven’t seen in 35 years, and Ryan Howard wants more.

Howard hit his 30th homer, Vance Worley pitched into the seventh inning, and the Phillies completed an historic four-game sweep in Cincinnati with a 6-4 win yesterday.

“Everybody’s playing well,’’ Howard said. “Atlanta’s playing well. Milwaukee’s playing well. The way I see it, we need to keep our foot on the gas and not let up.’’

Michael Martinez added a two-run homer as the Phillies (87-46) moved 41 games over .500 for the first time since Aug. 26, 1976, when they improved to 83-42 with a win at Cincinnati. It was Philadelphia’s first four-game sweep at Cincinnati since May 13-16, 1916.

Philadelphia won seven of eight games against the Reds this season to improve to 30-12 against them over the last six seasons.

Worley (10-1) allowed four runs and eight hits, struck out seven, and walked one. The first six of his K’s came on called third strikes, most of them on sinkers, he said.

Howard hit a solo shot to left-center on a 3-and-1 pitch from Mike Leake in the sixth, giving Philadelphia a 4-1 lead and extending his streak of seasons with at least 30 homers and 100 RBIs to six.

Cardinals 8, Brewers 4 - Albert Pujols hit a grand slam and St. Louis completed a three-game sweep of the NL Central-leading Brewers in Milwaukee.

Rafael Furcal led off the game with a home run for the second game in a row and Pujols also hit a first-inning homer before his third-inning slam. Matt Holliday hit his 200th career home run in the fifth to help the Cardinals win for the sixth time in seven games and move within 7 ½ games of the Brewers, who hadn’t been swept at home since the Dodgers did it Aug. 24-26, 2010.

Milwaukee scored all of its runs on homers by Prince Fielder, Jonathan Lucroy, and Corey Hart.

Fielder became the first player in Brewers history to reach 30 home runs in five consecutive seasons with a solo shot in the bottom of the eighth.

Pujols went 4 for 4 with five RBIs and three runs.

Rangers 7, Rays 2 - C.J. Wilson was perfect for five innings before exiting in the seventh with a hand injury and Ian Kinsler homered twice to help host Texas beat Tampa Bay.

Wilson (14-6) gave up two runs and two hits in six-plus innings with eight strikeouts. He got back on track after he was knocked around for six runs and 10 hits in five innings of his previous start, an 8-4 loss to the Angels.

The lefthander struck out six while retiring the first 15 Rays he faced before Casey Kotchman led off the sixth with an infield single that glanced off Wilson’s left hand.

Royals 11, Tigers 8 - Jeff Francoeur homered for his 1,000th career hit and drove in three runs, and visiting Kansas City outlasted Detroit to salvage a split of the four-game series.