The Brewers’ hired hand kept Milwaukee in the game, and J.J. Hardy came through with a hit in extra innings for the win.
The Cubs’ big acquisition? He made sure no extra innings were needed.
Rich Harden gave up just two hits and matched a career high with 11 strikeouts, helping Chicago to a 6-1 rout of the lowly Washington Nationals on Sunday that kept the NL Central-leading Cubs 4 1/2 games ahead of the hard-charging Brewers.
CC Sabathia got a no-decision instead of a victory for a change, but the Brewers wound up with their 23rd win in their last-at bat and ninth series sweep this season after a 4-3, 12-inning victory over Pittsburgh.
The Cubs and Brewers will meet six times next month, including the final three games of the season. But first, Milwaukee has two games this week against St. Louis, which beat Atlanta 6-3 on Sunday to remain 3 1/2 games back of the Brewers in the wild-card race.
“Obviously, everyone knows they are two big games,” said Mike Cameron, who homered and finished 5-for-5 for Milwaukee. “They’ve played pretty good baseball, too. Two good teams playing good baseball. Somebody’s got to win and somebody’s got to lose.”
In other NL games Sunday, it was: Houston 6, New York 4 in 10 innings; Philadelphia 5, Los Angeles 2 in 11 innings; Florida 5, Arizona 2; Colorado 4, Cincinnati 3 in 12 innings; and San Francisco 7, San Diego 4.
Pirates reliever Jason Davis (1-4) walked the Brewers’ Rickie Weeks with one out in the 12th inning. Weeks stole second moments later, setting the stage for Hardy, who drove the next pitch just over the infield for the winner.
“I was planning on swinging at that fastball, but I saw Rickie take off, so I figured I’d take it, let him get to second, scoring position,” Hardy said. “Split-finger, I think he hung it a little bit and it found a hole for me.”
It was a bitter end for the Pirates, who loaded the bases with no outs in the 12th off Brewers reliever Carlos Villanueva with a single by Ryan Doumit and two walks.
Villanueva was yanked for Guillermo Mota, and Mota (4-5) forced Brandon Moss to fly out to shallow center field, struck out Chris Gomez and got Luis Rivas to ground out to end the inning.
“You just had the feeling getting out of that jam right there, we were going to win the ball game in the bottom half of the inning,” Brewers manager Ned Yost said.
There was never a feeling that the Cubs wouldn’t win after they scored three runs in the second inning against the Nationals, especially the way Harden was pitching.
He improved to 4-1 with a 1.47 ERA since his July 8 trade from Oakland, and has racked up double-digit strikeouts five times for Chicago after doing it just twice in 89 career starts for the A’s.
“I don’t know,” Harden said. “I think definitely you have to give a lot of credit to (catcher Geovany) Soto. We’ve been working pretty well together. I’m comfortable with him behind the plate. I think a lot of it is mixing up pitches, keeping them guessing.”
Jason Bergmann (2-10) gave up four runs, four hits and four walks for Washington, but the Cubs (80-50) took advantage of three home runs to move 30 games over .500.
Mark DeRosa became the first Cubs player to homer in four straight games since Fred McGriff did it in September 2001, and outfielder Kosuke Fukudome showed signs of ending his hitting funk when he drove a pinch-hit homer to right in the eighth.
“We really rode the long ball today,” Cubs manager Lou Piniella said.
Cardinals 6, Braves 3
Albert Pujols hit a two-run homer, his eighth hit in 10 at-bats, and St. Louis handed visiting Atlanta its 12th loss in 14 games.
Pujols lined a 1-0 fastball down the middle from Jo-Jo Reyes (3-10) out to left.
Braden Looper (12-10) worked seven innings for the sixth consecutive time, and rookie Chris Perez got the last four outs for his fifth save in six chances.
Astros 6, Mets 4, 10 innings
Brad Ausmus led off the 10th inning with his second homer of the season, and Darin Erstad connected for his third three batters later for visiting Houston.
LaTroy Hawkins (2-0) pitched the ninth and hasn’t allowed a run since the Astros acquired him from the Yankees on July 30. Jose Valverde worked a perfect 10th for his 33rd save.
Pedro Feliciano (2-4) gave up both home runs in the 10th for the Mets.
Phillies 5, Dodgers 2m, 11 innings
Pedro Feliz hit a tying RBI single with two outs in the bottom of the ninth and delivered a three-run homer with two outs in the 11th to lift host Philadelphia.
The Phillies closed within a half-game of the NL East-leading New York Mets, while Los Angeles remained three games behind Arizona in the West.
After the Phillies rallied off closer Jonathan Broxton in the ninth, the Dodgers loaded the bases with no outs in the 10th against Chad Durbin (5-2), but couldn’t score.
Shane Victorino started both late rallies for the Phillies, the winning one with a lead off double off Joe Beimel (4-1).
Marlins 5, Diamondbacks 2
At Phoenix, Josh Willingham homered and drove in two runs to back a strong outing by Ricky Nolasco, moving Florida within five games of the first-place Mets.
Nolasco (13-7) allowed three hits and struck out 10 over 7 1-3 innings for the Marlins, who took two of three from the NL West leaders. Kevin Gregg pitched the ninth for his 29th save.
Doug Davis (5-8) allowed three runs and seven hits with eight Ks in seven innings.
Rockies 4, Reds 3, 12 innings
At Denver, Omar Quintanilla homered with one out in the 12th inning off Mike Lincoln (1-5), and the Rockies took advantage of five Cincinnati errors for the victory.
Ryan Speier (2-1) worked a scoreless inning for the win.
Giants 7, Padres 4
Kevin Correia (3-7) pitched six innings to win for only the second time since April, and Bengie Molina homered and drove in five runs for host San Francisco.
Molina’s homer in the sixth off Mike Adams (1-3) broke the game open. Brian Wilson worked a perfect ninth to earn his NL-leading 35th save in 38 chances.
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