The Giants entered the day with a half-game lead over San Diego, which beat Cincinnati 4-3 later Friday.

The struggling Rockies dropped their fifth straight game and fell 4 1/2 games behind the Giants with nine games remaining.

Lincecum, the reigning two-time NL CY Young pitching award winner, retired the first 15 batters. He allowed two hits, the first a bloop double to Seth Smith in the sixth that hit just inside the chalk in shallow left. Eric Young Jr.

followed with a two-out RBI single for the Rockies' only run.

Lincecum (15-10) finished with nine strikeouts, moving his total to a league-leading 229.

At San Diego, Miguel Tejada hit a go-ahead, two-run single with the bases loaded and two outs in the seventh inning as San Diego took the NL wild-card lead and kept Cincinnati's magic number for clinching the NL Central at three.

Tejada worked the count full against Nick Masset before singling past diving shortstop Orlando Cabrera to bring in Chase Headley and Will Venable. Tejada had three RBIs for the Padres, who took a half-game lead over Atlanta in the wild-card race and remained a half-game behind San Francisco in the NL West.

Headley started the winning rally with a one-out single against Arthur Rhodes (4-4). Pinch-hitter Nick Hundley walked and was forced on Venable's grounder. Masset came on and walked David Eckstein to load the bases and bring up Tejada.

At Philadelphia, Joe Blanton threw seven strong innings and Carlos Ruiz hit a tie-breaking RBI single as NL East-leading Philadelphia, beat New York for its 11th straight.

The Phillies's magic number for clinching their fourth consecutive division title is two with eight games remaining since Atlanta lost 8-3 at Washington. The winning streak is Philadelphia's longest since a 13-game stretch in 1991.

Blanton (8-6) allowed two runs and six hits, striking out six.

Shane Victorino homered on knuckleballer R.A. Dickey's second pitch, and also had an RBI double.

At Washington, Adam Dunn hit two home runs and drove in five runs, Willie Harris hit an inside-the-park homer and Jordan Zimmermann won his first game in 15 months as Washington handed Atlanta its fourth straight loss.

The Braves began the day one-half game ahead of San Diego in the NL wild card race. Washington, which won its fourth straight - its longest winning streak of the season - denied retiring manager Bobby Cox his 2,500th win in his 4,500th game as a major league manager.

Dunn, who missed Thursday's game with elbow and hamstring injuries, hit both home runs off Nationals nemesis Tim Hudson (16-9), who dropped to 10-2 against the Nationals franchise. He allowed six runs and seven hits in 5 2-3 innings. Hudson walked six, equaling his career high.

Dunn led off the second with a long home run, his 36th. He hit a two-run homer in the third for his 30th multihomer game and sixth this season. Dunn added a two-run single in the sixth giving him 101 RBIs.

At Chicago, Adam Wainwright pitched six innings for his 20th victory and Allen Craig hit a three-run homer as St.

Louis trounced Chicago.

Wainwright joined CC Sabathia and Roy Halladay as baseball's third 20-game winner one season after no big league pitchers accomplished the feat.

Wainwright (20-11) coasted after getting staked a 3-0 lead in the first inning. He allowed one run and six hits, striking out seven and walking one. He tied Halladay for the NL lead in strikeouts with 213 and lowered his ERA to 2.42, second behind Marlins starter Josh Johnson in the NL.

At Pittsburgh, Brett Myers struggled through six innings for his sixth consecutive win, and Hunter Pence had three hits and three RBIs as Houston sent Pittsburgh to its 100th loss of the season.

Myers (14-7) was tagged for six runs - five earned - and six hits. He walked four and struck out one. But thanks to Pence's hitting, he tied his career high for victories, established in 2003 with Philadelphia, and kept alive his string of pitching at least six innings in all 32 starts this season.

That is the longest streak since Curt Schilling went at least six innings in all 35 starts for Arizona in 2002.

The Pirates are secured of their record 18th straight losing season but this is Pittsburgh's first 100-loss year since 2001.

At Milwaukee, Ryan Braun drove in three runs and former first-round pick Jeremy Jeffress earned his first career win as Milwaukee downed Florida.

The loss mathematically eliminated the Marlins from playoff contention.

Jeffress was taken in the first round in 2006 but his career appeared in jeopardy after he was suspended 50 games in 2007 and 100 games in '09 for violating Major League Baseball's drug policy.

Marlins rookie Logan Morrison's 42-game streak of reaching base safely was snapped. He went 0 for 4 with two strikeouts.

At Phoenix, Clayton Kershaw allowed four hits and a run in eight-plus innings as Los Angeles hung on for the victory over Arizona.

The 22-year-old left-hander struck out nine in his career-high 32nd appearance. Kershaw (13-10) saw his ERA fall to 2.91. His career-best ERA is 2.79 last year.

Trent Oeltjen's two-out triple in the third inning gave Los Angeles a 1-0 lead. Andre Ethier tripled and scored on a sacrifice fly by Jay Gibbons in the fourth. Reed Johnson made it 3-0 with a home run in the eighth.

The Diamondbacks scored in the ninth on a leadoff single by Chris Young and Tony Abreu's double.