Around the NL Central: August 11 Edition

News and notes from around the Central:

• It was two in, two out for St. Louis yesterday: as expected, reliever Lance Lynn landed the DL with the strained oblique that forced him from Tuesday's game, and outfielder Matt Holliday was scratched from the lineup with discomfort in his back. But the Cards got catcher Yadier Molina back from his five-game suspension, and also activated utilityman Allen Craig from the DL.
  
• Pittsburgh first baseman Derrek Lee missed four games after being hit by a pitch on his left hand on August 3, but Lee returned to the lineup for the first two game of the Pirates' series against San Francisco. And then the hand started barking again, and Lee was held out of yesterday's series finale vs. the Giants.
• Cincinnati second baseman Brandon Phillips is snakebitten right now on the injury front: fresh off the ankle injury that sidelined him for two days over the weekend, Phillips was held out of yesterday's contest with a contusion of his left elbow, suffered when he was hit by an Esmil Rogers pitch on Tuesday night.
• Before yesterday's game against the Nationals, the Cubs held a ceremony to unveil a statue honoring the late Ron Santo. The statue is located at the corner of Sheffield and Addison, in close proximity to the statue of Santo's former teammate and close friend, Billy Williams.
• To clear room on the 40-man roster for pitcher Henry Sosa, who made his MLB debut last night, the Astros designated shortstop Tommy Manzella for assignment. That marks the end of a precipitous decline for Manzella, who was Houston's Opening Day starter at short in 2010.

Yesterday's action:

• Milwaukee rode a sublime pitching performance from Randy Wolf to a 5-1 victory over St. Louis. You need recap? We've got recap.
• Pittsburgh got a series win against the defending World Series champs, clobbering the Giants, 9-2, on Wednesday afternoon. Andrew McCutchen only had one hit on the day, but he made the most of it: McCutchen hammered a two-run shot off of Jonathan Sanchez in the third inning, and he also walked three times and scored four runs. Ryan Ludwick also had a solid day at the dish, going 3-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI double. Jeff Karstens worked six effective innings for the win, striking out nine and giving up eight hits and two runs.
• Cincinnati solved Colorado, at least for one night, taking a 3-2 decision over the Rockies on Wednesday. The Reds got on the board first thanks to a pair of solo homers (Edgar Renteria and Jay Bruce did the honors) in the fourth inning, but the Rox answered with single runs in the fifth (Dexter Fowler RBI single) and sixth (Troy Tulowitzki's 23rd homer). Joey Votto provided the winning run all by himself with his 18th homer in the bottom of the sixth, making a winner out of Mike Leake, who worked 7.1 innings and scattered eleven hits while fanning five.
  
• Chicago used three big flies to claim a 4-2 win over the Nationals at Wrigley Field. Geovany Soto tied the game in the second inning with a solo homer, and Reed Johnson added a solo shot of his own in the fifth as the Cubs took a 3-1 lead. After Jayson Werth cut the lead to one on his 14th homer in the sixth, Alfonso Soriano restored the two-run margin with his 20th homer in the bottom of the frame. Carlos Marmol notched his 25th save by striking out the side in the ninth inning.
  
• Houston found itself in a hole early, as Arizona greeted rookie Henry Sosa with three first-inning runs on a Willie Bloomquist leadoff homer and Paul Goldschmidt's two-RBI single. Sosa settled in from there, though, holding the D-backs to a single run over the next five innings and finishing with a line of 6 IP, 6 hits, four earned runs, three walks, and four strikeouts. Josh Collmenter, on the other hand, worked seven solid innings, limiting the Astros to four hits and two earned runs while striking out five.

Your updated standings for August 11:

The Wild Card race looks like this right now:

On tap for tonight:

• The Crew and Cardinals conclude their series at 7:15 p.m. CDT, when Yovani Gallardo (13-7, 3.56) takes on Chris Carpenter (7-8, 3.75).
• The Reds and Rockies wrap up their four-game series at 11:35 a.m. CDT. Scheduled to start: for Cincinnati, Johnny Cueto (7-5, 2.06); for Colorado, Jhoulys Chacin (9-8, 3.45).
• The Cubs and Nationals make up the game that was rained out earlier this week at 1:20 p.m. CDT. Ryan Dempster (9-8, 4.87) gets the call for the Cubs, while Jordan Zimmermann (7-9, 3.12) toes the slab for the Nats.
  
• The Astros and D-backs are back in action at 8:40 p.m. CDT. Joe Saunders (8-9, 3.61) takes the ball for the Snakes, while Brett Myers is on the bump for Houston (3-12, 4.76).
• Pittsburgh has the day off.