Almost perfect Garcia 2-hits Cubs

Jaime Garcia carried a perfect game into the eighth inning and finished with a two-hitter, dominating the visiting Milwaukee Brewers in a 6-0 victory for the St. Louis Cardinals last night.

Garcia (4-0) issued a four-pitch walk to Casey McGehee with one out in the eighth. On the next pitch, Yuniesky Betancourt grounded a solid single to left to end the no-hit bid.

Garcia threw a four-hit shutout to beat the Padres in his first start, but hadn't gone longer than six innings in any of his next five outings. This was his third career shutout.

Albert Pujols had a single, sacrifice fly and three RBI for the Cardinals, who pounded a red-hot opposing pitcher for the second straight game. Randy Wolf (3-3) entered with an 0.65 ERA his previous four games but gave up six runs in five innings while hitting three batters.

In other games:

* At New York, Jason Pridie hit a three-run homer to lead the Mets to a 6-3 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers, 6-3. Andre Ethier singled in the first inning for the Dodgers, becoming the first major league player in 2 years with a 30-game hitting streak.

Mets pitcher Jonathon Niese fell behind, 3-0, and Ethier lined the next pitch to centerfield. The previous player with a hitting streak of that length was Washington's Ryan Zimmerman, who hit in 30 straight games from April 8 to May 12, 2009.

* At Chicago, Jay Bruce hit a three-run homer, Brandon Phillips made some key defensive plays at second base and the Cincinnati Reds won their third straight game, beating the Cubs, 5-4. Edinson Volquez (3-1) got the win, laboring through numerous jams in five-plus innings. He allowed six hits and four runs, walked four and threw a pair of wild pitches.

* At Pittsburgh, Wandy Rodriguez allowed two runs over seven innings to win his fourth consecutive start against the Pirates and the Houston Astros scored twice in the eighth to snap a three-game losing streak, beating Pittsburgh, 3-2.

Houston managed only five hits over seven innings against Paul Maholm, but the first three batters of the eighth reached against a Pittsburgh bullpen that entered with the second-best ERA (2.63) in the National League. Hunter Pence doubled in the tying run and Carlos Lee had the go-ahead RBI in the eighth.