The Milwaukee Brewers and CC Sabathia cruised to another easy win Wednesday night, the team capturing its eighth in a row and the big left-hander his 10th straight decision.
And still, Milwaukee dropped another game behind the division-leading Chicago Cubs.
Rich Harden and Jason Marquis each shut down the Braves, Kosuke Fukudome and Geovany Soto provided the offense and the Cubs swept a doubleheader in Atlanta to run their road winning streak to seven.
Marquis (8-7) got some retribution against his former team, leading the Cubs to a 10-2 rout in the opener. Then Harden (2-1) tossed five sharp innings in the ninghtcap, an 8-0 victory that put the Cubs to 26 games over .500 for the first time since ending the 1984 season 96-55.
“Let’s not talk about that and just hope it continues,” said manager Lou Piniella.
Alright, how about this: The Cubs now lead the NL Central by 3 1/2 games, even after Milwaukee’s 7-1 rout at San Diego.
In other NL games, it was: Los Angeles 7, Philadelphia 6; Colorado 6, Arizona 5; New York 12, Washington 0; St. Louis 6, Florida 4; Pittsburgh 5, Cincinnati 2; and Houston 6, San Francisco 2.
Sabathia (7-0) has been sensational for the Brewers in eight starts since being acquired from Cleveland in a trade on July 7. The reigning AL Cy Young winner won his 10th straight decision to extend his career high.
Sabathia allowed one run and nine hits and lowered his ERA with Milwaukee to 1.55. He struck out eight and walked one, getting some run support from Prince Fielder’s home run off Josh Banks (3-5) and his own RBI groundout.
“They did have some good at-bats, made me work and put the bat on the ball,” Sabathia said. “I was just trying to make pitches when I needed to.”
San Diego had its chances against Sabathia, who retired the Padres in order just once. But Sabathia pitched out of enough trouble to strand nine runners and struck out the side in his final inning, sandwiched around an infield single.
“We just couldn’t break through,” Padres manager Bud Black said. “He’s one of the best pitchers in the big leagues.”
No matter what the Brewers do, though, they can’t seem to make up any ground on the Cubs, who are 5-0 against the Braves and have outscored them 38-11 in the season series.
“We scored two runs in 18 innings,” said Braves manager Bobby Cox, who was ejected in the first game. “We were behind 4-0 by the second inning both games.”
Aramis Ramirez had a run-scoring single and Jim Edmonds also drove in a run in the nightcap, before Fukudome’s two-run single off Jorge Campillo (7-5) gave Chicago its second 4-0 lead.
After retiring the first eight batters, Harden walked three straight with two outs in the third. Harden escaped the bases-loaded jam when Casey Kotchman grounded out to first base.
“I didn’t really have good stuff,” said Harden, who nevertheless helped the Cubs to their fifth shutout of the season. “I had to throw a lot of pitches.”
Marquis (8-7) gave up two runs and six hits over 5 1-3 innings for his first win against the Braves. He had been 0-3 with a 14.04 ERA in his first four starts against his former team.
Soto, who finished 3-for-5 with four RBIs, hit a two-run double in the opener off Charlie Morton (3-6) and a two-run homer in the ninth off Francisley Bueno.
“We struggled from the first pitch,” said Braves catcher Brian McCann. “It’s frustrating to play so poorly today. We just didn’t do anything good.”
Dodgers 7, Phillies 6
At Los Angeles, Nomar Garciaparra hit a one-out homer in the bottom of the ninth off Clay Condrey (3-3) to give the Dodgers their third straight win over the Philllies.
The Dodgers moved into a first-place tie with Arizona in the NL West. The Phillies, who have lost five of seven, dropped into a first-place tie with New York in the East.
Jonathan Broxton (3-3) pitched a perfect ninth to earn the victory.
Rockies 6, Diamondbacks 5
At Denver, reliever Brian Fuentes issued an intentional walk with two outs in the ninth to load the bases, then retired Adam Dunn on a grounder to preserve the win.
Brad Hawpe hit a two-run homer in the eighth off Jon Rauch (4-3) that put Colorado ahead 6-4. Taylor Buchholz (5-3) pitched the eighth and Fuentes held on for his 22nd save.
Mets 12, Nationals 0
At Washington, Dan Murphy homered and drove in three runs to help John Maine (10-7) in his first start since going on the DL with a mild right rotator cuff strain.
The Mets sent 13 batters to the plate in the third and scored eight runs on just four hits off starter Jason Bergmann (2-9), who walked five in a 51-pitch inning.
Cardinals 6, Marlins 4
Troy Glaus had four hits, Jason LaRue added a go-ahead double and visiting St. Louis tagged reliever Renyel Pinto (2-4) with the loss.
Braden Looper (11-9) gave up one earned run and five hits in seven innings for St. Louis. Chris Perez closed for his third save.
Pirates 5, Reds 2
Paul Maholm (8-7) pitched eight innings and Jason Michaels and Brandon Moss homered to lead host Pittsburgh.
Josh Fogg (2-5) allowed four runs and six hits in four-plus innings.
Astros 6, Giants 2
Mark Loretta walked and was hit by a pitch – one of three hit batters during the sixth inning – and host Houston won its season-high seventh straight.
The Astros’ winning streak is their longest since a nine-game string in September 2006.
Randy Wolf (8-10) improved to 2-0 in four starts since Houston acquired him from San Diego on July 22. Barry Zito (6-15) shut out the Astros on two hits through five innings.
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