Ted Lilly came close to following Carlos Zambrano's no-hitter with his own as the Chicago Cubs beat the Houston Astros 6-1 on Monday to sweep a two-game series moved from Houston by Hurricane Ike. On Sunday, Zambrano pitched the Cubs' first no-hitter since 1972, leading Chicago to a 5-0 win. And until the seventh, Lilly appeared headed to a repeat. Then Mark Loretta hit a single. Lilly (15-9) was given a standing ovation by the crowd of 15,158. He allowed the one hit in seven innings, struck out nine and walked one. Aramis Ramirez's first-inning sacrifice fly and Jim Edmonds' homer off Brian Moehler (11-7) in the fifth built a 2-0 lead, and Derrek Lee and Geovany Soto hit two-run homers in the sixth. Hard-charging Houston had won 14 of 15 coming into the series, but the Cubs left the Astros 2 1/2 games behind Milwaukee and Philadelphia, which share the National League wild-card lead. Dodgers 8, Pirates 2: At Pittsburgh, Hiroki Kuroda allowed three hits over seven shutout innings for his first road win in more than two months and Manny Ramirez had three more hits, leading surging Los Angeles past Pittsburgh. With Juan Pierre homering for the first time in nearly two years, the Dodgers rebounded from a 1-0, 10-inning loss at Colorado on Sunday for their 13th victory in 15 games - a surge that has given them a five-game lead in the NL West over Arizona. Nationals 7, Mets 2: At Washington, John Lannan limited New York to one hit over seven innings, Anderson Hernandez delivered a two-run single off a tiring Pedro Martinez, and the Nationals beat the fading-again Mets. The Mets' lead over idle Philadelphia in the NL East fell to a half-game; New York held a 3 1.2-game cushion as recently as Wednesday. The Mets have 13 games left, Philadelphia has 12. Diamondbacks 3, Giants 1: At Phoenix, Adam Dunn homered with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning to lead Arizona past San Francisco. Justin Upton added his 13th home run for the Diamondbacks, who won for just the second time in 10 games to remain 4 1/2 games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West. Padres 11, Rockies 5: At Denver, Adrian Gonzalez homered and drove in four runs, Wade LeBlanc earned his first career win and San Diego beat Colorado.
