Odd Lineup Doesn’t Help Cardinals

The unusual ploy of batting pitcher Todd Stottlemyre eighth and the return of shortstop Royce Clayton from a rib-cage injury weren’t enough for the St. Louis Cardinals, as they lost, 5-4, to the Houston Astros at St. Louis.

Stottlemyre, the first major league starting pitcher to bat anywhere but ninth in the order since Steve Carlton in 1979, singled and scored in the third and lined out in the fourth.

“I wasn’t batting eighth because of my offensive ability,” Stottlemyre said. “We just wanted to get another leadoff man up there before [Mark] McGwire batted.”

Shane Reynolds won his fourth consecutive start as the NL Central leaders began the second half where they left off at the All-Star break. They now have a six-game lead over second-place Chicago and a 13 1/2-game lead over the Cardinals.

Reynolds (11-5) gave up three runs on seven hits in seven innings and kept McGwire, who went one for three, stuck on 37 homers for the sixth consecutive game.

Carl Everett had two runs batted in for the Astros. Moises Alou added an RBI single off Stottlemyre (9-7) in the fifth and a run-scoring double in the seventh.

Milwaukee 12, Chicago Cubs 9--Marquis Grissom drove in five runs with a homer and a double as the Brewers outslugged the Cubs at Milwaukee.

It was the Cubs’ first visit to County Stadium since Aug. 29, 1965.

With a playoff-type buzz, the crowd of 38,055 saw 12 extra-base hits. Among those were three homers, including Cub slugger Sammy Sosa’s 34th shot in his second at-bat after missing the All-Star game because of a sore shoulder.

In the third, though, Grissom’s three-run homer, his sixth, chased Chicago’s Kevin Tapani, who gave up six hits in 2 1/3 innings. Grissom also had a two-run double in the first.

Atlanta 6, Florida 4--Chipper Jones, Gerald Williams and Javy Lopez homered at Miami to power the Braves to their ninth consecutive victory.

Jones hit a two-run homer in the first inning, Williams added a solo shot in the fifth and Lopez reached the upper deck in left field with a three-run blast in the sixth, all against Livan Hernandez (7-5).

Jones, the NL’s All-Star starting third baseman, lacked only a triple to hit for the cycle. He doubled and scored in the sixth and singled in the seventh.

Montreal 9, New York 8--Rondell White singled home the go-ahead run in the 11th inning as the Expos ended a seven-game road losing streak with a victory over the Mets at New York.

Orlando Cabrera led off the 11th with a single off John Franco (0-3) and advanced to third on two groundouts. Cabrera scored when White hit a hard grounder past shortstop Rey Ordonez.

Mike Maddux (2-2), activated from the 15-day disabled before the game, pitched two scoreless innings for the win.

Ugueth Urbina, the losing pitcher in Tuesday night’s All-Star game, got his 21st save.