On the day Lou Piniella announced he'll retire from managing at season's end, his inspired Cubs squad displayed a feistiness buy aion kinah that's been an earmark of his teams. Paced by a trio of home runs from the red-hot Aramis Ramirez, the North Siders rallied from an early six-run deficit to thrash the visiting Astros on Tuesday, sending Piniella home a happy camper after he announced his days as a skipper are drawing to a close after 23 seasons on the bench. For Aramis, the huge night punctuates what's gucci shoes for women been a startling turnaround after a disappointing start to the campaign. He's now batting .383 with nine homers and 24 RBIs in July.
The Giants channeled X458 their own brand of resilience in topping the Dodgers in Los Angeles. Trailing by one run heading into the top of the ninth, San Francisco pieced together a three-run frame, aided by a clerical gaffe by the Dodgers X678 coaching staff, which was forced to remove closer Jonathan Broxton after too many mound visits.
Meanwhile, the Cubs' mortal rivals, the Cardinals, extended their winning streak to seven games behind a brilliant X348 outing from Chris Carpenter, who spun eight frames of one-run ball as the Redbirds downed the Phillies at Busch Stadium. Matt Holliday and Randy Winn went deep as St. Louis maintained its half-game lead in the National caterpillar drive chain League Central over the second-place Reds, who topped the Nationals in a wild affair in Washington.
The Braves, leaders of the NL East by a healthy margin, kept rolling along, too, earning a tidy win over the Padres conveyor rollers in Atlanta. Perhaps unheralded at times this season relative to their NL-best record (55-38), the low-profile Braves got another homer from Matt Diaz, the third consecutive game in which he's swatted a big fly, and belt conveyor seven innings of one-run ball from winning pitcher Jair Jurrjens. YWJ
