Chicago ? On a night when emotions raged and tempers flared, Scott Rolen delivered again for the St. Louis Cardinals.

Rolen connected for a tiebreaking home run in the eighth inning off fiery Carlos Zambrano and sent St. Louis to a 5-4 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Monday night.

Zambrano’s outing ended one pitch after Rolen’s homer when he hit Jim Edmonds for a second time and was ejected.

“He’s an emotional guy,” Rolen said of Zambrano. “But I don’t believe what went on the field tonight outside of baseball deserves any words.”

Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa did have some words to share, though.

“I don’t care what the rivalry is, what the circumstance is, what the standings are, you are not allowed to cross the line in this game, and their pitcher crossed it twice,” LaRussa said.

“It was pretty clear.”

The Cardinals homered three times and won for the 12th time in 14 games this month to increase their NL Central lead over the Cubs to nine games.

Zambrano (9-5) hit Edmonds with a pitch in the first to load the bases. Then the young Cubs All-Star became angered when Edmonds homered in the fourth and hesitated before leaving the plate to admire the flight of the ball.

St. Louis' Scott Rolen, right, and Tony Womack celebrate Rolen's eighth-inning, two-run home run in the Cardinals' 5-4 victory over the Cubs. Rolen drove in Womack on the play Monday in Chicago.

As Edmonds neared home plate, Zambrano began yelling in the direction of the Cardinals’ standout.

“I just told him to run the bases and don’t try to be cocky,” Zambrano said.

Seconds later, Cubs catcher Michael Barrett began jawing with someone in the Cardinals’ dugout and had to be restrained by home plate umpire Joe Brinkman.

The benches emptied briefly, but order was restored quickly and no punches were thrown.

“I have a job to do, and that’s to protect my pitcher. And when I was looking over the dugout, one of their players asked me what I was looking at,” Barrett said, declining to identify the Cardinals player.

“I just got a little irritated by that. … Unfortunately I didn’t react the way I probably could have. I sort of erupted. In the heat of the moment, unfortunately, those things happen.”

Braves 4, Phillies 2

Atlanta — Mike Hampton (5-8) pitched seven strong innings after another rough start, John Smoltz did the rest, and the Braves held off Philadelphia to take over sole possession of first place in the NL East for the first time this season. Adam LaRoche, Andruw Jones, Charles Thomas and Chipper Jones drove in runs for the Braves, who have won 16 of 20 to surge to the top of a weak division. Phillies starter Paul Abbott dropped to 0-4 since joining Philadelphia. He started the season with Tampa Bay, going 2-5 before getting his release on June 3. He allowed eight hits and four runs in 42/3 innings.

Expos 6, Pirates 2

Pittsburgh — Terrmel Sledge drove in two runs with a groundball just past first base during a four-run seventh inning, and Montreal halted Pittsburgh’s 10-game home winning streak, the Pirates’ longest since winning 24 straight in 1978. Rocky Biddle left after five innings with the score tied at 2. Joe Horgan (3-0) retired the only batter he faced for the victory. Sledge’s grounder off John Grabow (0-4) to Randall Simon appeared as if it would end the inning. But Sledge hustled down the line to beat Simon to the bag for a single.

Marlins 6, Mets 5

New York — Pinch-hitter Lenny Harris came through with a go-ahead single in the ninth inning, spoiling Scott Erickson’s bid for his first major-league win in nearly two years. Miguel Cabrera tied it with an RBI single off closer Braden Looper (2-2), who gave up four straight hits in the ninth.

Reds 8, Brewers 4

Cincinnati — Wily Mo Pena hit his sixth homer in his last eight games and also had a run-scoring single and a double. Right-hander Aaron Harang (6-2) won his second straight start against the Brewers, fighting through control lapses while protecting an early lead. The Reds batted around in the first inning for four runs off right-hander Ben Hendrickson (0-2), whose second career start turned out much like the first.

Dodgers 7, Astros 6

Houston — Milton Bradley and Shawn Green hit back-to-back home runs in the eighth inning to lift Los Angeles to its seventh straight win. Adrian Beltre hit his career-high 24th homer for the Dodgers, who have won 13 of their last 14 games. Giovanni Carrera (2-0) allowed two runs and two hits in 11/3 innings of relief for the victory, and Eric Gagne threw just eight pitches in a perfect ninth for his 26th save in 27 opportunities.

Padres 13, Rockies 6

Denver — Ismael Valdez pitched five-plus innings and hit a two-run double, Mark Loretta had four hits and three RBIs, and San Diego set a season high for runs Terrence Long homered and had two RBIs, and the Padres matched their season high with 18 hits — every starter had one — to win for the fourth time in five games since a four-game losing streak.

Giants 6, D’backs 1

Phoenix — Brett Tomko pitched into the eighth inning, and San Francisco made up for the absence of Barry Bonds with base-running and timely hitting. The slugger sat out the game after having a root canal Monday morning, but the Giants won for the sixth time in eight games to stay 21/2 games behind NL West leader Los Angeles.