Lynn sails to 17th victory

HOUSTON — Lance Lynn pitched seven innings to earn his 17th win, rookie Pete Kozma hit a two-run homer and the St. Louis Cardinals strengthened their grip on a playoff spot with a 6-1 win over the Houston Astros on Monday night.

Yadier Molina added a solo shot as the Cardinals moved 3? games in front of Milwaukee and Los Angeles for the second NL wild card. The Brewers lost 12-2 at Washington earlier in the day, and the Dodgers were off.

Lynn (17-7) struck out nine and yielded allowed one run and five hits. The right-hander is 4-0 with a sparkling 0.89 ERA in his last four outings, including a relief appearance against Milwaukee on Sept. 9.

Kozma extended St. Louis' lead to 3-0 with his second major league homer in the second, a day after hitting his first one. Molina hit his 21st homer of the season to make it 4-1 in the fourth.

Houston starter Fernando Abad (0-6) pitched 1? innings before leaving with a strained right oblique. He walked one and allowed a run. He was replaced by Fernando Rodriguez, who was charged with three runs and seven hits in a career-long 4? innings.

Lynn improved to 4-0 in five career appearances against Houston, and the Redbirds beat the Astros for the ninth straight time in front of a crowd of 12,584 — the smallest crowd in the history of the 12-year-old ballpark.

Daniel Descalso got St. Louis off to a fast start with a two-out RBI triple in the second inning. Kozma's homer bounced off the wall above the Crawford Boxes in left field.

Molina looked healthy a day after he was out of the lineup with lower back spasms. The All-Star catcher was injured avoiding a pitch on Saturday. He fell face down to the ground in the seventh inning getting out of the way of a pitch inside, but jumped right back up, before eventually drawing a walk.

Scott Moore had an RBI single in the second for Houston. Moore drove in Jason Castro, who reached on a wild pitch after he struck out leading off the inning.

Matt Holliday helped the Cardinals put the game away with a two-run single in the seventh. Holliday, who left Sunday's game in the ninth inning with tightness in his back, went 1-for-5 with three strikeouts.

Closer Jason Motte, who leads the NL with 40 saves, got a break after converting opportunities in each of the Cardinals' previous seven wins to earn NL Player of the Week honors on Monday.

Nationals 12, Brewers 2

In Washington, Jayson Werth wound up with a two-out, two-run double when Milwaukee center fielder Carlos Gomez lost a ball in the sun to spark a six-run fourth inning, and the Nationals cut their magic number for winning the NL East to five.

Jordan Zimmermann (12-8) allowed one run and four hits in 6? innings, while delivering two hits and driving in a run as a batter. Ryan Zimmerman produced three hits and four RBIs for the Nationals.

Milwaukee's Norichika Aoki was hitless in four at-bats, including two strikeouts.

Mets 6, Pirates 2

In New York, Ike Davis connected twice and reached a career-high 30 homers, Jenrry Mejia pitched five effective innings for his first major league win and the Mets won their fourth straight.

Davis had a career-best five RBIs and Mejia (1-1) allowed four singles and two walks Monday. The right-hander struck out four and only his last out was made by an outfielder.

Pittsburgh lost for the 31st time in 43 games since improving to a season-high 16 games above .500 (63-47) on Aug. 8.

Pittsburgh's Andrew McCutchen went 1-for-3 with a triple to keep his batting average at .336 — behind only Melky Cabrera, who is at .346 but has removed himself from consideration.

Rockies 4, Diamondbacks 2

In Denver, Tyler Chatwood pitched effectively into the sixth and Andrew Brown homered for Colorado.

Jason Kubel homered for Arizona.

Tyler Colvin and Charlie Blackmon had two hits each for the Rockies. Rafael Betancourt worked the ninth for his 30th save.

For one night, at least, the Rockies (59-94) avoided tying the franchise record for losses in a season with a solid performance from Chatwood. Colorado's pitchers had allowed 33 runs on 48 hits through the first three games of this series before holding the Diamondbacks to five hits Monday.

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