ATLANTA - Russ Ortiz bounced back from another shaky start for his career-high 19th win and the Braves rallied for a 6-4 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies, who dropped into a tie with Florida for the wild-card lead Monday.
Ortiz gave up four runs in the first, then pitched five scoreless innings while the Braves mounted a comeback against their former pitcher, Kevin Millwood.
Mark DeRosa hit a two-run homer in the first, and he scored the go-ahead run from third in the fifth when Andruw Jones hit into a double play with the bases loaded.
The game drew 17,543, the smallest crowd in Turner Field's seven-year history.
Ortiz, who has four more wins than anyone in the league, was 18-9 with San Francisco in 1999. He'll get three or four more starts this season to get his 20th win.
Mike Lieberthal hit a three-run homer off Ortiz in the first, which wasn't anything new. The Atlanta ace has given up 26 of his 94 runs in the first.
Ortiz was constantly behind in the count, throwing 51 of 110 pitches for strikes. He walked four to take over the league lead from Chicago's Kerry Wood with 93.
But Ortiz allowed three hits and cruised after the Phillies left the bases loaded in the second. Philadelphia had two baserunners from the third through sixth, one on a hit batter, the other on Ortiz's final walk.
Ray King pitched 11/3 scoreless innings, Jaret Wright got the final two outs in the eighth and Will Cunnane pitched the ninth for the second save of his career, both in the past two days.
The journeyman, 29, who got out of a jam with runners on first and third with two outs in the ninth, is filling in as the closer for John Smoltz, expected to be on the disabled list for another week with a sore elbow.
ASTROS 8, BREWERS 4: Roy Oswalt returned from the disabled list and Jeff Bagwell and Lance Berkman each had three RBIs for visiting Houston.
The Astros' fourth win in five games put them in a first-place tie with the idle Cubs.
Oswalt, sidelined since July 30 with a strained right groin, was activated from the 15-day disabled list Monday. The right-hander allowed four earned runs on five hits in five innings to win for the first time since July 18.
Berkman gave Houston a 3-0 lead in the first with a three-run double on a 3-and-2 pitch from Wayne Franklin.
Franklin, who leads the majors in home runs allowed, served up a two-run shot to Bagwell in the fourth to make it 5-0.
Wes Helms cut the deficit to 5-3 with a three-run shot with two outs in the fourth, but Houston pulled away with runs in the fifth and sixth.
MARLINS 5, METS 0: Alex Gonzalez homered and four pitchers combined on a six-hit shutout for visiting Florida.
Josh Beckett allowed four hits through six innings, striking out six and walking two. Relievers Nate Bump, Ugueth Urbina and Braden Looper followed with three scoreless innings.
Florida scored four in the ninth off reliever Orber Moreno when pinch-hitter Todd Hollandsworth had a run-scoring single, Juan Pierre tripled in two and Luis Castillo doubled in Pierre.
PIRATES 9, REDS 1: Josh Fogg pitched his first major-league complete game and Craig Wilson homered twice and tied his career high with four RBIs for visiting Pittsburgh.
