Wood Leads Cubs To Victory, Cardinals Win

Whether at the plate or on the mound, Travis Wood delivered whenever the bases were loaded. He snuffed out a Milwaukee Brewers rally with the bases loaded and nobody out in the 12th inning. An inning later, Wood forced in the go-ahead run at the plate for the Chicago Cubs after drawing a two-out walk in a 2-1 win on Wednesday night.

After Carlos Torres missed high on a 3-1 cutter, Wood tossed the padding wrapped around his left elbow aside and jogged to first. Raucous Cubs fans who made the 90-minute drive north from Chicago made Miller Park feel like Wrigley Field.

An inspirational one-liner from manager Joe Maddon on the mound in the 12th apparently made an impression on Wood.

"When he came in the game, I said, `Understand one thing: If you get out of this, you're getting an at-bat.' So, that kind of jacked him up," Maddon said. "That's just how we operate."

Maddon really didn't have a choice in the top of the 13th since he was out of position players.

With a base open, Milwaukee manager Craig Counsell elected to have Torres (0-1) intentionally walk Miguel Montero to load the bases for Wood.

"I'm sitting there thinking `Am I going to let Miguel Montero beat me or am I going to let the pitcher beat me?' I think you have to make the pitcher beat you," Counsell said.

It's exactly what happened for Wood, a career .181 hitter with nine homers.

Cardinals 2, Rockies 0

Adam Wainwright said his curveball was the best it's been all season. The sinker was, too. That spelled bad news for Colorado Rockies hitters, and welcome relief for his ERA.

The St. Louis Cardinals' ace threw six-hit ball into the seventh inning in his strongest start after a shaky beginning and Matt Holliday had a two-run double to end the Rockies' five-game winning streak with a 2-0 victory Wednesday night.

"It's very hard not to know kind of where you're at because people will tell you," Wainwright said. "Somebody will text you you're whole stat line. I know I've got probably 20-something more starts and a lot of really, really good things can happen."

Rockies cleanup hitter Carlos Gonzalez found out right away that Wainwright was on his game when he broke his bat on a soft lineout to the mound in the first.

"So far his year has not been very good," Gonzalez said. "But he's just one of those pitchers that's got a really good track record, and he pitched like the old Wainwright."

Stephen Piscotty had three hits and scored a run for the Cardinals, who had lost three of four.

Chris Rusin (1-2) allowed two runs in six innings for the Rockies, who averaged five runs a game during the winning streak, which was their longest since a six-game run Sept. 16-21, 2014.

"I had good movement on my ball, I was hitting my spots," Rusin said. "Just the ball bounced the wrong way to Holliday. A ground ball and you can live with that."

Holliday is batting .385 with 11 homers and 37 RBI in 40 games against the Rockies, for whom he played from 2004-08. He had been in an 0-for-15 slump before the hit.

Astros 5, White Sox 3

Even though his Houston Astros remain in last place in the AL West, manager A.J. Hinch believes the team has shaken off a slow start.

Jose Altuve had three hits and two RBI, Colby Rasmus and Jason Castro each had a solo home run and the Astros beat Chicago 5-3 on Wednesday night despite the White Sox turning their second triple play of the season.

Altuve went 3 for 4 with a walk and Castro went 2 for 3 with a walk.

"Records are cumulative," Hinch said. "Ours isn't pretty or where we want it to be right now, but that doesn't mean we're not a good team. I'll take our team against any of these guys.

"I do believe we are playing better baseball."

Jose Abreu went 2 for 4 with two RBI for Chicago, which has dropped a season-high four straight and six of seven overall.

"Here we go," Chicago third baseman Todd Frazier said. "Now what are we going to do? How are we going to bounce back? We're still riding high. We're still in first place. We got our main guy going tomorrow."

Ace Chris Sale will attempt to win his ninth straight start to begin the season in the finale of the three-game series.

Wednesday, May 18 Scoreboard

Philadelphia 4, Miami 2

Detroit 6, Minnesota 3

Kansas City 3, Boston 2

Oakland 8, Texas 1

Washington 7, New York Mets 1

Baltimore 5, Seattle 2

Atlanta 3, Pittsburgh 1

Tampa Bay 6, Toronto 3

Cleveland 8, Cincinnati 7 (F/12)

Houston 5, Chicago White Sox 3

Chicago Cubs 2, Milwaukee 1 (F/13)

St. Louis 2, Colorado 0

Boston 5, Kansas City 2

New York Yankees 4, Arizona 2

Los Angeles Angels 8, Los Angeles Dodgers 1

San Francisco 2, San Diego 1

Thursday, May 19 Schedule (All Times Central)

Seattle at Baltimore, 11:35 a.m.

Chicago Cubs at Milwaukee, 12:40 p.m.

Atlanta at Pittsburgh, 6:05 p.m.

Washington at New York Mets, 6:10 p.m.

Cleveland at Cincinnati, 6:10 p.m.

Colorado at St. Louis, 6:15 p.m.

Houston at Chicago White Sox, 7:10 p.m.

Toronto at Minnesota, 7:10 p.m.

San Francisco at San Diego, 8:10 p.m.

Los Angeles Dodgers at Los Angeles Angels, 9:05 p.m.

New York at Oakland, 9:05 p.m.

Friday, May 20 Schedule (All Times Central)

Atlanta at Philadelphia, 6:05 p.m.

Colorado at Pittsburgh, 6:05 p.m.

Cleveland at Boston, 6:10 p.m.

Tampa Bay at Detroit, 6:10 p.m.

Seattle at Cincinnati, 6:10 p.m.

Milwaukee at New York Mets, 6:10 p.m.

Washington at Miami, 6:10 p.m.

Kansas City at Chicago White Sox, 7:10 p.m.

Toronto at Minnesota, 7:10 p.m.

Texas at Houston, 7:10 p.m.

Arizona at St. Louis, 7:15 p.m.

New York Yankees at Oakland, 8:35 p.m.

Baltimore at Los Angeles Angels, 9:05 p.m.

Chicago Cubs at San Francisco, 9:15 p.m.

Los Angeles Dodgers at San Diego 9:40 p.m.

Saturday, May 21 Schedule (All Times Central)

Kansas City at Chicago White Sox, 1:10 p.m.

Toronto at Minnesota, 1:10 p.m.

Arizona at St. Louis, 1:15 p.m.

Atlanta at Philadelphia, 2:05 p.m.

Cleveland at Boston, 3:05 p.m.

New York Yankees at Oakland, 3:05 p.m.

Colorado at Pittsburgh, 3:05 p.m.

Tampa Bay at Detroit, 3:10 p.m.

Seattle at Cincinnati, 3:10 p.m.

Milwaukee at New York Mets, 3:10 p.m.

Texas at Houston, 6:15 p.m.

Chicago Cubs at San Francisco 6:15 p.m.

Washington at Miami, 6:15 p.m.

Baltimore at Los Angeles Angels 9:05 p.m.

Los Angeles Dodgers at San Diego, 9:10 p.m.

Sunday, May 22 Schedule (All Times Central)

Tampa Bay at Detroit, 12:08 p.m.

Seattle at Cincinnati, 12:10 p.m.

Milwaukee at New York Mets, 12:10 p.m.

Washington at Miami, 12:10 p.m.

Cleveland at Boston, 12:35 p.m.

Atlanta at Philadelphia, 12:35 p.m.

Colorado at Pittsburgh, 12:35 p.m.

Kansas City at Chicago White Sox, 1:10 p.m.

Toronto at Minnesota, 1:10 p.m.

Texas at Houston, 1:10 p.m.

Arizona at St. Louis 1:15 p.m.

Baltimore at Los Angeles Angels, 2:35 p.m.

New York Yankees at Oakland, 3:05 p.m.

Los Angeles Dodgers at San Diego, 3:40 p.m.

Chicago Cubs at San Francisco, 7:00 p.m.