Halladay (4-0), acquired in the offseason from Toronto, has lived up to the hype in his first four National League starts. He has worked 33 innings, allowing only three earned runs for an 0.82 ERA.

Raul Ibanez and Jayson Werth both hit RBI doubles against Braves starter Tim Hudson (1-1), but the win owed as much to a pair of brilliant defensive plays.

Center fielder Shane Victorino stole away a likely homer from Troy Glaus with a leaping catch in the second, and second baseman Chase Utley made a diving stop on a shot up the middle to start an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded in the seventh.

Halladay pitched his 16th career shutout. Last season, he led the majors with a career-high four.

In San Diego, the hosts won their sixth straight, downing San Francisco.

Jon Garland (1-2) held the slumping Giants to one run in seven strong innings.

Nick Hundley hit a two-run homer and Adrian Gonzalez added a solo homer for San Diego, which has won 10 of 12 against the Giants at Petco Park.

San Francisco's Todd Wellemeyer (0-3) had another rough start as he allowed two runs over four innings.

In Phoenix, Colby Rasmus homered twice, including a tiebreaking shot in the ninth, as St. Louis got a testy win over Arizona.

The benches emptied in the second inning when Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter, after being hit by a pitch, tried to take out Arizona second baseman Kelly Johnson when running on a double-play ball. No punches were thrown.

It was 4-4 when Rasmus opened the ninth with a home run off Chad Qualls (0-1). The Cardinals wound up scoring five times in the inning, capped by Skip Schumaker's three-run homer.

Jason Motte (1-1) got the victory for the Cardinals, who have won all five of their series this season.

In Washington, the home team beat Colorado, staying undefeated when the starting pitcher goes at least five innings.

John Lannan lasted long enough to mean the Nationals are 8-0 when their starter goes at least five, 0-7 when he doesn't.

Nationals reliever Tyler Clippard (3-0) struck out three in two scoreless innings.

The game was tied entering the eighth, when Rockies reliever Rafael Betancourt (0-1) allowed a leadoff single.

After an intentional walk, Nieves lined a double.

Ivan Rodriguez padded the lead with a sacrifice fly before an announced crowd of 11,191, the lowest in three seasons at Nationals Park.

In Pittsburgh, Yovani Gallardo struck out 10 in five shutout innings to steer Milwaukee over Pittsburgh.

Nine of the first 11 Pittsburgh batters that Gallardo (1-2) retired came by strikeout.

The Brewers' Ryan Braun, Rickie Weeks and Jody Gerut hit home runs and Alcides Escobar tripled in consecutive innings for Milwaukee, which has won three straight.

Pirates starter Zach Duke (2-1) allowed each of the Milwaukee homers.

In Cincinnati, Rafael Furcal drove in four runs with a single, double and triple to highlight another big performance by the majors' best-hitting lineup, as Los Angeles thumped Cincinnati.

Hiroki Kuroda (2-0) gave up a pair of homers and had an overturned call go against him, but got the win.

The Reds have lost six of seven, with their rotation still lacking a victory. Top starter Aaron Harang (0-3) had another rough time, giving up 10 hits in only 5 2-3 innings.

The Dodgers got hits from top to bottom, piling up 18 overall and scoring in all but one inning while reaching a season high in runs.

In Houston, Geoff Blum's first career pinch-hit triple drove in two runs in the seventh inning to propel Houston over Florida.

Blum's hit off Burke Badenhop (0-2) was chased almost to the wall in center field, and gave the Astros their fourth straight win.

Humberto Quintero had two hits including a homer for the Astros, while Wilton Lopez (1-0) got the win.

The Marlins suffered their first series defeat of the season.

In New York, Chicago snapped a run of four straight defeats by beating New York.

Carlos Silva (2-0) added six crisp innings to his surprising comeback, using his heavy sinker to cede only one run.

Alfonso Soriano hit a two-run homer for the Cubs.

A record-low Citi Field crowd watched as the Mets' late rally petered out against Chicago's floundering bullpen.

Odalis Perez (0-2) took the loss.