The Associated Press

HOUSTON - Greg Maddux earned his 295th win, pitching the Chicago Cubs past the Houston Astros 4-1 for their fifth straight victory.

Todd Hollandsworth's RBI triple sparked a two-run eighth for the Cubs. Maddux (6-5) befuddled the Astros, allowing only one run and eight hits in 6 1/3 innings.

The Astros have lost three in a row to Chicago and four of their last five, a tailspin that has left them in fifth place in the NL Central. A crowd of 36,225 booed the Astros throughout the night, an unusual occurrence from Houston's normally placid fans.

Chicago's Paul Bako doubled in speedy Corey Patterson for the tying run in the seventh and Walker drove in Bako on a sacrifice fly, giving the Cubs a 2-1 lead.

Aramis Ramirez, who hit a tying, RBI single in Chicago's ninth-inning rally Tuesday night, led off the eighth with a single. Hollandsworth followed with a shot to deep center, which Craig Biggio let slip out of his glove as he crashed into the wall trying to avoid the man-made hill in center.

While Biggio scrambled to get up and make the play, Ramirez raced home and Hollandsworth made it to third.

Derrek Lee's sacrifice fly scored Hollandsworth.

Maddux got off to a rocky start in the first, giving up three hits, including an RBI single to Lance Berkman that put the Astros on top 1-0.

But the four-time Cy Young Award winner found his groove, and he didn't allow an Astro past first base the rest of the night.

Indians 9, Mets 1

NEW YORK - C.C. Sabathia allowed one run and six hits in eight impressive innings for Cleveland.

Sabathia (4-3) shut down the Mets a night after they had 14 hits in a 7-2 win after firing batting coach Denny Walling. The big left-hander struck out three and walked one.

Casey Blake hit a two-run homer, and Omar Vizquel and Victor Martinez each drove in two runs for the Indians, who have won five of six.

Rick White pitched the ninth to complete the six-hitter.

Leading 2-1, the Indians broke it open with three runs in the sixth.

Blake led off with a double, went to third on Jody Gerut's single and scored one out later on a wild pitch by Matt Ginter (1-1).

Coco Crisp followed with a grounder to the mound that Ginter fielded but threw high to Mike Piazza - pulling the first baseman off the bag. First-base umpire Mike DiMuro ruled Crisp was safe, bringing Art Howe out of the dugout. After a few minutes of arguing, the Mets manager was tossed by DiMuro.

Mike Stanton came in and struck out Sabathia, but walked Matt Lawton to load the bases and gave up a two-run single to Vizquel before getting Travis Hafner on a flyout to end it.

Ginter allowed five runs - three earned - in 5 1/3 innings for the Mets, whose two-game winning streak ended.