By The Associated Press

TORONTO – Roy Halladay pitched a five-hitter for his major league-leading fifth complete game, and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the St. Louis Cardinals 4-1 on Monday night.

Halladay (10-3) has won six of his last seven starts, and is tied with Chicago’s Jon Garland for the most wins in the AL.

The 28-year-old right-hander, who won the 2003 AL Cy Young Award, struck out five and walked none for his 20th career complete game.

Halladay leads the AL with 108 innings pitched. He won just eight games last season because of a troublesome right shoulder.

Shea Hillenbrand homered for the Blue Jays, who reached .500 again (32-32) by ending a four-game losing streak. Toronto played its first home game following a 4-9 road trip.

John Mabry homered for the Cardinals, who have lost just four of their last 22 interleague games. Center fielder Jim Edmonds was a late scratch because of bruised right ribs.

Devil Rays 5, Brewers 3

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Jonny Gomes and Travis Lee homered to back Doug Waechter, and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays beat the Milwaukee Brewers 5-3 Monday night.

Prince Fielder, son of former major league star Cecil Fielder, made his big league debut for Milwaukee after being promoted from Triple-A Nashville. The Brewers’ first-round pick in the 2002 amateur draft went 0-for-4.

Waechter (3-3) allowed three runs and eight hits in eight innings, struck out six and walked one. Danys Baez finished for his eighth save in 14 chances.

Orioles 8, Astros 5

BALTIMORE – Jay Gibbons and Larry Bigbie homered in a six-run second inning, and the Baltimore Orioles ended the Houston Astros’ five-game winning streak with an 8-5 victory Monday night.

Orioles rookie Hayden Penn (1-0) earned his first big-league win despite allowing five runs and seven hits in 5 2-3 innings. B.J. Ryan, the fourth Baltimore pitcher, worked the ninth for his 17th save.

Playing in his first game since going on the disabled list May 28 with a strained left hamstring, Bigbie hit his first home run of the season and enjoyed his first three-hit game. He also walked and stole a base.

Marlins 9, Cubs 1

CHICAGO – Dontrelle Willis pitched seven strong innings to become the first 11-game winner in the majors, leading the Florida Marlins to a 9-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Monday night.

Willis gave up one run and seven hits, struck out five and walked none. He added an RBI single in the fifth, when the Marlins broke open the game with seven runs.

Miguel Cabrera, Paul Lo Duca and Alex Gonzalez each drove in two runs for the Marlins, who won for the third time in four games after losing eight of 10. Luis Castillo hit his first homer of the season in the ninth.

Rangers 7, Braves 3

ARLINGTON, Texas – Alfonso Soriano homered twice against Tim Hudson in the pitcher’s shortest outing for Atlanta, and the Texas Rangers won 7-3 for their first victory against the Braves.

Chris Young (6-3) pitched seven shutout innings with seven strikeouts and one walk while allowing just two singles. The 6-foot-10 right-hander lowered his ERA to 2.78.

Soriano’s three-run homer in the first put the Rangers ahead to stay.

and extended his hitting streak to 15 games, matching his career best and the longest active in the major leagues. It was 4-0 when Soriano led off the third with his 18th homer.

Hudson (6-5) was pulled four batters later with two runners on. In 2 2-3 innings, the right-hander allowed five runs on five hits and matched a season high with five walks while throwing 76 pitches – 38 balls and 38 strikes.

Hank Blalock also homered for the Rangers, who extended their home winning streak to nine games in their return after a 4-8 road trip the past two weeks.

Atlanta, which has lost five straight series, had won all six previous games against the Rangers. The Braves swept three-game series in 2002 and 2003.

In six seasons for Oakland in the AL West before being traded to Atlanta last December, Hudson pitched regularly against the Rangers. He was 6-4 with a 3.66 ERA in 15 starts.

Two walks and a fielder’s choice grounder set up Soriano’s first homer. The Rangers loaded the bases after two more walks in the second before Blalock hit a hard liner to right for the final out.

Young threw 61 of his 97 pitches for strikes. Young was coming off his first loss in seven decisions, a 2-0 loss at Philadelphia, and has allowed more than two runs just once his last 10 starts.

Kameron Loe replaced Young to start the eighth, and allowed Wilson Betemit’s RBI double.

Blalock’s two-run homer came off Jorge Vasquez in the fourth. Soriano then followed with a long flyball to left, caught by a backpedaling Ryan Langerhans, who slammed hard into the wall and fell to the ground right after catching the ball.

By then, Soriano already had the fourth multihomer game this season, and the 11th in his career.

It was only Soriano’s third start since a left hamstring problem that forced him to miss four starts, during which he had a pinch-hit single his only at-bat. He is hitting .356 (21-for-59) during this hitting streak, which matches the 15-game one he had in April 2003 for the New York Yankees.

Andruw Jones hit a two-run homer off Francisco Cordero in the ninth to complete the scoring.

Notes: Atlanta is 7-15 in series openers this season, and have lost nine straight series openers on the road. … Rangers DH David Dellucci drew two walks, increasing his AL-leading total to 45, two short of his 2004 season total. … Braves rookie Kelly Johnson, who is from Austin, Texas, broke an 0-for-14 slump with a first-inning single.

AP-ES-06-13-05 2257EDT

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