Hamels stifles Brewers

Cole Hamels came up short in his bid for a perfect game, but host Philadelphia completed its season-long climb to .500 last night.

Hamels retired his first 18 batters and used one of baseball's best changeups to strike out 11 in his 32d career start, leading the Phillies to a 6-2 win over the Milwaukee Brewers.

With nearly 43,00 fans going wild on every pitch, Hamels (6-1) didn't allow a base runner until he walked Rickie Weeks to open the seventh. NL home run leader J.J. Hardy followed with Milwaukee's first hit, his 13th homer of the year, to make it 6-2.

A no-hitter will have to wait for the blossoming Hamels, but nothing rattled the lefty. He struck out the final two batters of the seventh and pitched the Phillies (20-20) to the .500 mark for the first time this year. Hamels gave up two hits and one walk in eight innings. Brett Myers pitched the ninth.

Aaron Rowand hit a three-run homer in the second for the Phillies, who evened their record with their sixth win in seven games.

Plus, Hamels, 23, showed he could swing the bat just fine with two singles for his first career multihit game.

Astros 2, Giants 1 -- Rookie Hunter Pence homered for the second straight game and Houston beat visiting San Francisco for its fourth straight win.

The win gives Houston its first home series win over the Giants since 1999 and breaks a streak of five consecutive series losses to San Francisco.

Pence put Houston up, 2-1, with a solo homer that bounced off the train tracks above the left-field wall in the fourth.

Nationals 6, Braves 4 -- Ryan Church hit a go-ahead, three-run double, the Nationals' bullpen provided five shutout innings, and last-place Washington beat visiting Atlanta for its fifth victory in six games.

Church's liner to right-center off Kyle Davies (1-2) capped a four-run fifth in which the Nationals batted around and all of the runs were unearned, thanks to second baseman Kelly Johnson's fielding error.

Mets 8, Cubs 1 -- Jorge Sosa pitched seven-plus innings of one-hit ball, David Wright had two RBIs and the New York beat visiting Chicago Cubs in a game that didn't end until 12:53 a.m. -- about 12 hours before they were scheduled to play again.

Devil Rays 11, Rangers 8 -- Carl Crawford tripled with the bases loaded and Delmon Young also drove in three runs to lead Tampa Bay over Texas in Kissimmee, Fla.

Sammy Sosa moved closer to becoming the fifth player with 600 career homers, hitting No. 597 in the fourth inning for the Rangers, who led, 6-4, before the Devil Rays scored six runs in the fifth -- the last three on Crawford's third triple this season.

Rockies 5, Diamondbacks 3 -- Brad Hawpe homered twice and drove in four runs to lead Aaron Cook and Colorado past Arizona in Denver.

Hawpe's first career multihomer game overshadowed the solid major league debut of Diamondbacks third baseman Mark Reynolds, who went 2 for 3 and doubled home two runs with his first major league hit.

Marlins 4, Pirates 3 -- Josh Willingham and Miguel Cabrera doubled in runs during Florida's eighth-inning rally, and the Marlins won for the second night in a row after losing four straight by beating host Pittsburgh.

Dodgers 5, Cardinals 4 -- Pinch hitter Wilson Betemit's three-run homer with two outs in the fifth inning boosted Los Angeles over visiting St. Louis.

Angels 5, Mariners 0 -- John Lackey (6-3) handcuffed the Seattle lineup for six innings and combined with two relievers on a four-hitter for visiting Los Angeles.

Blue Jays 2, Orioles 1 -- A.J. Burnett pitched a three-hitter with 10 strikeouts, Troy Glaus singled home the go-ahead run and host Toronto beat Baltimore for its first three-game sweep of the season.

Royals 4, Athletics 3 -- Ryan Shealy came off the disabled list then hit a go-ahead RBI single in the ninth inning, lifting Kansas City in Oakland.

Indians 7, Twins 1 -- C.C. Sabathia pitched eight sharp innings and Trot Nixon drove in three runs to lead host Cleveland over Minnesota.

Padres 3, Reds 2 -- Kevin Kouzmanoff walked with the bases loaded in the ninth inning to lift host San Diego over Cincinnati.