Pittsburgh ? Greg Maddux reached 15 wins for a record 17th consecutive season. Getting to 200 innings made him just as happy,

“You always have your goals,” Maddux said Thursday after leading the Chicago Cubs over the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-3. “One of them is always to win 20. but you always have a goal to pitch 200 innings. If you can go out there and get your 200 innings, you have to be doing something right.”

Maddux also hit a two-run single in a four-run second inning for the Cubs, who completed their third series sweep of the Pirates this year. Maddux raised his total to 2012/3 innings, reaching 200 for the 16th time in 17 years — he missed by two-thirds of an inning in 2002.

“I think 200 innings for me personally means more than the wins,” Maddux said, “because you can’t control the wins and losses as much as you can control showing up every fifth day and getting your 200 innings.

Chicago, which began the day a half-game behind San Francisco in the NL wild-card race, is 7-2 on its trip following the three victories in Pittsburgh. Chicago has won 12 of 15.

“I think we should have been doing this all year,” reliever Kent Mercker said. “Better late than never, I guess.”

The Cubs head to New York for a three-game series against the Mets, then finish the season at home with four games against Cincinnati and three against Atlanta.

Dodgers 9, Padres 6

San Diego — Cesar Izturis homered, and Adrian Beltre had three hits for Los Angeles, which survived a shaky start by Kazuhisa Ishii and beat San Diego to take a 11/2-game lead over San Francisco in the NL West. The Dodgers, whose rotation has struggled, won for just the fourth time in 11 games since Sept. 11. The Padres’ playoffs hopes grew bleaker; they fell 51/2 games behind the Dodgers.

Astros 7, Giants 3

San Francisco — Lance Berkman hit a three-run homer off Dustin Hermanson in the ninth inning, and Houston rallied from a late three-run deficit. Carlos Beltran had three hits for the Astros, who gave their flagging playoff hopes a big boost by scoring five runs in the ninth.

Cardinals 4, Brewers 2

Milwaukee — St. Louis reached 100 wins for the first time since 1985 and the seventh time overall, beating Milwaukee behind Yadier Molina’s first major-league home run. Molina’s two-out homer in the eighth off Matt Wise (1-2) broke a 2-2 tie, and Hector Luna followed with his third homer of the season, his fourth hit of the game. Wise had allowed just one homer this season.

St. Louis (100-52), which clinched the NL Central title last weekend, has 10 games remaining and can surpass its club record of 106 wins set in 1942.

Reds 3, Braves 2

Atlanta — Gabe White earned his first save in more than four years, preserving Cincinnati’s win over Atlanta and preventing the Braves from clinching another division title.

Phillies 9, Marlins 8 10 innings

Miami — Jimmy Rollins’ two-out homer in the 10th inning gave Philadelphia a victory over Florida to move the World Series champion Marlins within a game of elimination from the postseason. After being swept by the Phillies, the Marlins dropped into a tie with Philadelphia for second place in the NL East. At 79-73, the best the teams can do is tie Atlanta atop the division.

Mets 4, Expos 2

Montreal — Tom Glavine won for just the third time since mid-June, and Gerald Williams and Victor Diaz homered to lead New York over Montreal. Glavine (10-13) allowed six hits — including a double and a pair of solo homers to Brad Wilkerson — in 61/3 innings to improve to 3-1 against Montreal this year. He was 2-10 in his previous 16 starts since June 13.

Rockies 7-2, D’backs 1-1

Denver — Jeromy Burnitz drove in the winning run with a bloop single in the 10th inning to give Colorado a 1-2 victory and a doubleheader sweep against Arizona. In the opener, Jeff Francis pitched six strong innings for Colorado in a 7-1 win.