Cole Hamels pitched a shutout to steer the Philadelphia Phillies to a 1-0 win over the San Francisco Giants in the National League on Tuesday. The win maintained Philadelphia's 7-1/2 game lead in the NL East division, while San Francisco slipped a game below Colorado in the wild card race. Hamels only allowed a double in the second inning and a single to start the ninth. He struck out nine and walked just one in his fourth career shutout and second this season. He extended his scoreless innings streak to 19, tying a career best. The only run of the game was provided by Ryan Howard's fourth-inning double. Cardinals 7, Brewers 6: In St. Louis, Matt Holliday's three-run homer snapped a seventh-inning tie and helped St. Louis edge Milwaukee. The Cardinals are a major-league-best 26-9 since acquiring Holliday from Oakland five weeks ago. Pitcher Joel Pineiro notched his eighth straight win as the Cardinals kept pace with Los Angeles and Philadelphia in the fight for the overall best record in the NL. Braves 4, Marlins 3: In Miami, Atlanta moved two games ahead of Florida, winning a clash of two fringe contenders for the wild card. Tim Hudson gave up just two runs in 5 1-3 innings in his first big league start since having elbow ligament replacement surgery almost 13 months ago. Atlanta is three games behind Colorado for the NL wild card, and Florida fell five back. Rockies 8, Mets 3: In Denver, Colorado snapped a five-game losing streak to beat New York and reclaim sole lead in the wild card race. Todd Helton hit a three-run homer for the Rockies, who started a 10-game homestand against losing teams. Jason Giambi made his Colorado – and National League – debut in the seventh when he entered as a pinch hitter with the bases loaded and drew a four-pitch walk. Dodgers 4, Diamondbacks 3: In Los Angeles, Matt Kemp homered for the fourth consecutive game as Los Angeles pipped Arizona. Andre Ethier drew a bases-loaded walk that forced in the go-ahead run in the seventh inning. He also prevented the Diamondbacks from scoring the tying and go-ahead runs in the eighth with an outstanding catch, snagging the ball atop the right-field wall, falling and tumbling but holding on. Arizona's five-game winning streak ended. Cubs 4, Astros 1: In Chicago, Randy Wells became the first Chicago rookie pitcher in 11 years to reach 10 wins with another strong outing against Houston. In his previous two starts against the Astros, Wells pitched 14 scoreless innings. This time, he allowed just an unearned run in 6 2-3 innings. Kerry Wood was the last Cubs rookie to win 10 games, in 1998. Wells is Chicago's first 10-game winner this season. Milton Bradley homered for Chicago. Reds 11, Pirates 5: In Cincinnati, the hosts sent Pittsburgh crashing to a sixth straight loss. Craig Tatum drove in four runs for the Reds to double his previous career total. Cincinnati pitcher Justin Lehr overcame control problems, walking five in six innings, to get the win. Padres 4, Nationals 1: In San Diego, Clayton Richard took a shutout into the seventh inning to steer San Diego past Washington. Richard got two outs in the seventh before a Nationals homer cut the Padres' lead to 2-1. His fellow rookie Will Venable drove in a run and made another spectacular catch, helping condemn Washington a fifth straight defeat.
