Johan Santana was looking to give the Mets’ bumbling bullpen a break. Houston’s Roy Oswalt was matched up against Randy Johnson. Cole Hamels was just trying to keep the Phillies close in the NL East.
All three aces were up to the task Sunday, turning in their best performances of the season.
Santana pitched a three-hitter for his fifth career shutout, leading New York to its sixth straight win, 4-0 at Pittsburgh.
“I was very aggressive throwing the first pitch for strikes,” said Santana, who got ahead in the count on 26 of 31 hitters. “That allowed me to go out there for the ninth. I was just doing my job.”
Santana (11-7) retired his first 10 hitters before Jack Wilson singled and Freddy Sanchez reached on an error in the fourth. The two-time AL Cy Young Award winner struck out seven, including Adam LaRoche three times, and didn’t walk a hitter.
In Houston, Oswalt allowed one hit in eight innings and struck out 10 in the Astros’ 3-0 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks. The right-hander, 5-0 in his last seven starts, walked two and matched a season high for strikeouts.
“Roy was just phenomenal,” Houston manager Cecil Cooper said. “Without question, this was his best outing of the year. It probably was the second-best outing I’ve ever seen him throw after the (NLCS) playoff game in 2005.”
Hamels pitched eight sharp innings in San Diego to snap a seven-start winless drought, Pat Burrell hit a go-ahead homer and Philadelphia beat the Padres 2-1 to remain two games back of the Mets.
Hamels (10-8) limited the Padres to one run on seven hits as he won for the first time since a 4-1 victory at Atlanta on July 3.
“Every one of us on the starting staff tries to put up good innings and quality starts and hope for the best,” Hamels said. “We have been able to do that but, unfortunately, it hasn’t gone my way. That’s baseball.”
In other NL games, it was: Chicago 9, Florida 2; Cincinnati 7, St. Louis 3; San Francisco 3, Atlanta 1; Colorado 7, Washington 2; and Los Angeles 7, Milwaukee 5.
Brian Schneider and Carlos Beltran homered to support Santana, who threw 85 of 113 pitches for strikes en route to his eighth career complete game and second this season. His previous shutout was June 19, 2007, when he blanked the Mets for Minnesota.
The left-hander was at 108 pitches through eight innings and had no thoughts about coming out of the game.
“He was adamant about going back out there, which is always a good thing,” New York manager Jerry Manuel said. “If you can, you like to reward.”
The Mets, who acquired reliever Luis Ayala from Washington before the game for a player to be named, didn’t need to rely on their shaky bullpen, which had trouble nailing down wins in the first two games of the series without injured closer Billy Wagner.
Houston’s Ty Wigginton hit a three-run homer off Johnson (10-9) in the first inning as the Astros averted a three-game sweep and won for the ninth time in 11 games.
Oswalt (11-8) had given up at least five hits in all 23 previous starts this season. But he didn’t think Sunday’s effort was his best of the year.
“I can’t say the best,” he said. “It’s better results than I’ve had in a while.”
Oswalt retired 15 straight batters from the fourth until he was taken out after eight. Jose Valverde finished the two-hitter, allowing only Stephen Drew’s single in the ninth before earning his 31st save.
Hamels was 0-3 with a 3.61 ERA during his career-high stretch of starts without a win. Hamels has allowed two or less runs in seven of his last nine starts and 10 of 14.
Brad Lidge struck out the side in the ninth – and gave up a walk – to pick up his 30th save in 30 chances.
Cubs 9, Marlins 2
Two-run doubles by Alfonso Soriano and Aramis Ramirez and a three-run double by Reed Johnson sparked an eight-run seventh that rallied visiting Chicago.
Ryan Dempster (14-5) struck out 10 in six innings to win for the fourth time in six starts. He gave up two runs, the sixth straight game in which he has allowed two runs or fewer.
Dodgers 7, Brewers 5
Andre Ethier hit his second homer of the game, off Carlos Villanueva (4-6), in the ninth inning and host Los Angeles recovered to beat Milwaukee moments after blowing a four-run lead.
The Dodgers also got homers from Manny Ramirez and Matt Kemp to move into a first-place tie with Arizona in the NL West.
Ryan Braun returned to the starting lineup for Milwaukee and hit a tying home run with two outs in the top of the ninth off Chan Ho Park.
Reds 7, Cardinals 3
A revived Edinson Volquez (15-5) pitched seven shutout innings and traded up-and-in fastballs with counterpart Kyle Lohse (13-6), helping Cincinnati end visiting St. Louis’ four-game winning streak.
Giants 3, Braves 1
Tim Lincecum pitched 7 2-3 strong innings and closer Brian Wilson got visiting San Francisco out of a bases-loaded jam in the eighth.
Showing no bad effects from the bruised knee that forced him out of his last start, Lincecum (13-3) allowed three hits, one run and four walks while striking out 10.
Wilson, who pitched the ninth to earn his NL-leading 33rd save, intentionally walked Brian McCann before ending the eighth on Jeff Francoeur’s fielder’s choice grounder.
Rockies 7, Nationals 2
At Washington, Ian Stewart and Seth Smith hit three-run homers, Aaron Cook struggled through five innings for his 15th victory and Colorado handed the Nationals their season-high 10th straight loss.
Brad Hawpe added a solo homer for Colorado, which swept the weekend series and has won four of five overall.
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