Thursday’s games

Giants 4, Padres 1: At San Diego, Jerome Williams pitched seven strong innings in his first start in two months and San Francisco jumped back into a tie for the wild-card lead by beating the Padres. The Giants (89-70) tied idle Houston in the wild-card race, one game ahead of Chicago (88-71), which was swept by the Cincinnati Reds.

Reds 2, Cubs 1 (12): At Chicago, Javier Valentin doubled in the go-ahead run with two outs in the 12th inning and Cincinnati played spoiler again, sending the Cubs to a crushing defeat. Chicago lost for the fifth time in six games, including back-to-back, 12-inning heartbreakers to the Reds. The Cubs also wasted a stellar outing by Mark Prior, who struck out 16 in nine innings.

Dodgers 4, Rockies 2 (11): At Los Angeles, light-hitting David Ross hit a two-out, two-run homer in the 11th inning and the Dodgers beat Colorado to clinch no worse than a tie for the West title. Los Angeles leads San Francisco by three games entering a season-ending, three-game series between the teams at Dodger Stadium starting tonight. The Giants need a sweep to force a one-game playoff, which would be played Monday in San Francisco.

Brewers 7, Cardinals 6: At St. Louis, Matt Morris struggled in his final tuneup for the playoffs, and Milwaukee beat the Cardinals to send the Central champions to their first four-game losing streak of the season.

Phillies 7, Marlins 4: At Philadelphia, Pat Burrell went 4 for 4, including a tiebreaking two-run single in Philadelphia’s six-run seventh inning, helping the Phillies rally for a victory over Florida.