Cardinals Don’t Miss a Beat and Win, 6-3

Glad to be in uniform and not on strike, the St. Louis Cardinals showed why they are a first-place team with everything to play for the remainder of the season.

In the first game since a new labor agreement was reached, Albert Pujols hit a three-run homer in the first inning to get the Cardinals going and St. Louis defeated the Chicago Cubs, 6-3, Friday.

The atmosphere at Wrigley Field was a bit strange, more back-to-business-as-usual than anything else.

As the Cubs took the field, there was a smattering of applause and no outward signs of anger or hostility.

Fans sat on the rooftops overlooking the neighborhood park and enjoyed the sun. But the announced crowd of 36,311 inside was smaller than usual for a Cardinal-Cub matchup that is usually close to a sellout (39,111) because of the heated rivalry between two teams in the same division.

St. Louis (74-59), shooting for the postseason, had more to lose if the players had gone on strike than the Cubs, who are 21 games under .500.

San Francisco 7, Arizona 6--Barry Bonds hit a two-run single and then walked four times and Randy Johnson failed to get his 20th victory at Phoenix as the Giants held off the Diamondbacks for their sixth win in a row.

Reliever Robb Nen struck out Erubiel Durazo with the bases loaded to end the eighth inning and struck out pinch-hitter Matt Williams with the bases loaded to finish the game.

Atlanta 4, Montreal 2--Pitcher Damian Moss singled and scored on Darren Bragg’s double in the fifth inning and he combined with John Smoltz on a four-hitter to lead the Braves at Montreal.

Moss (9-5) yielded three hits over the first seven innings before giving up Michael Barrett’s leadoff double in the eighth. Barrett took third on Matt Cepicky’s grounder before scoring on Brad Wilkerson’s grounder. Smoltz pitched the ninth for his major league-leading 47th save.

Milwaukee 9, Cincinnati 4--The Brewers began the day in Milwaukee, waiting to hear whether there would be a strike. Once the team landed in Cincinnati, it went straight to the park, arriving around three hours before the start of the game.

Whether related to the threat of a strike, Friday night high school football--or the opponent--the announced attendance of 16,218 was the smallest at Cinergy Field since May 8, also against Milwaukee.

Philadelphia 7, New York 5--Travis Lee hit a go-ahead three-run homer in the seventh inning at Shea Stadium as the Phillies sent the Mets to their 12th consecutive loss at home.

Pat Burrell of the Phillies drove in three runs to pass 100 RBIs for the first time in his career to help the Phillies (67-66) win for the eighth time in nine games to move above .500 for the first time since they were 5-4 on April 10.

Florida 4, Pittsburgh 3--Only 4,962 turned out at Miami. It was the fourth-smallest home crowd in club history, all this season. They saw Kevin Millar get his fifth consecutive two-hit game and double in the tiebreaking run in the sixth inning.

San Diego 2, Colorado 0--Brett Tomko gave up four hits in eight innings to lead the Padres at San Diego. The Padres got polite applause from the crowd of 15,987 when they took the field in the top of the first inning.