ST. LOUIS – Jim Thome punished St. Louis Cardinals pitching again with two home runs, and the Philadelphia Phillies ended Albert Pujols’ 30-game hitting streak in a 9-4 win.

Pat Burrell also homered twice for the Phillies, giving him 101 for his career.

Reds 4, Astros 3

HOUSTON – Juan Castro hit a tiebreaking sacrifice fly in the seventh inning as Cincinnati beat the Houston Astros 4-3.

Brewers 3, Pirates 2

MILWAUKEE – Wayne Franklin pitched no-hit ball into the seventh inning and Scott Podsednik hit two home runs as the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-2 for their fourth straight win.

win on Friday night.

Pat Burrell also homered twice for the Phillies, giving him 101 for his career. The Phillies ended a three-game losing streak by beating the Cardinals for the seventh consecutive time.

Larkin left the game after striking out in the third with a strained ring finger on his left hand. He was taken to a hospital for X-rays.

Cincinnati starter Seth Etherton led off the sixth with a single to right for the first hit of his major league career.

Etherton (1-1) lost to the Astros on Saturday in his first major league start since Aug. 4, 2000, when he pitched for Anaheim. This time, he went six innings, allowed five hits two earned runs and he struck out four and walked two.

Chris Reitsma allowed Jeff Kent’s RBI single in the ninth before finishing for his fourth save.

The Astros loaded the bases with one out in the eighth off Ryan Wagner but pinch-hitter Orlando Merced struck out and Adam Everett hit into a force out to end the inning.

Craig Biggio, who had four hits, led off the third with a double to left field and scored on Lance Berkman’s double to right for the Astros’ first run.

The Reds put runners at the corners against Octavio Dotel with two outs in the eighth but Casey hit into a force play to end the inning.

Notes: Casey leads the Reds with 34 multihit games, including two four-hit performances. … Houston’s 12-game, 14-day homestand is their longest of the season. … Morgan Ensberg has been named the Astros player representative to replace catcher Gregg Zaun, released Wednesday night. Adam Everett becomes the alternate. … Lance Berkman (62) has the most RBIs against the Reds over the past four seasons. Bagwell and Sammy Sosa each have 48 RBIs in that span.

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