Milwaukee Brewers had a minor stumble in their march to their first division title in 29 years when they lost 5-2 at the Chicago Cubs Monday. The Brewers (90-64) are looking to close in on their first division crown since 1982 and while they temporarily lost steam with Monday's loss they still have a lead of 5 1/2 games in the National League Central with eight left in their regular season. Astros 3, Reds 2: Matt Downs hit a tiebreaking homer in the eighth inning and the Houston Astros beat the slumping Cincinnati Reds. Downs greeted Nick Masset (3-6) with a 362-foot leadoff drive to left, sending the Astros to their second straight win after a three-game losing streak. Brandon Phillips hit a leadoff homer in the first for Cincinnati, which has lost four straight. Cardinals 4, Phillies 3: Kyle Lohse outpitched Roy Halladay, and the St. Louis Cardinals held off the Philadelphia Phillies to gain ground on Atlanta in the NL wild-card chase. Lance Berkman homered and had an RBI single for the surging Cardinals, who moved within 2½ games of the wild card-leading Braves. Atlanta lost 6-5 at Florida on Omar Infante's two-run homer off closer Craig Kimbrel with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning. Marlins 6, Braves 5: The sliding Atlanta Braves stumbled again, losing to the Florida Marlins on Omar Infante's game-ending, two-run homer. Atlanta now has dropped three of four, and its NL wild-card lead is down to 2½ games over surging St. Louis, which beat Roy Halladay and the Phillies 4-3 in Philadelphia. Diamondbacks 1, Pirates 0: Pitcher Ian Kennedy dominated Pittsburgh in a 1-0 triumph to give the Diamondbacks a 5 1/2 game lead in the NL West. In another game, San Diego Padres routed Colorado Rockies 8-2.
