Giants close to playoff contention

A four-game sweep has the San Francisco Giants thinking about the playoffs again. Rookie Kevin Frandsen hit his first major league homer, and Pedro Feliz also connected Thursday to lead surging Giants over the San Diego Padres 8-4. Losers of 16 of 19 coming into the series, the last-place Giants are six games back of NL West-leading Los Angeles. San Francisco (58-63) is 9-1 against the Padres since July 1. The Giants return home for a 10-game stretch that includes three against the Dodgers, three against second-place Arizona and four against wild-card leading Cincinnati. "We're playing all the right teams coming up to get back in it," reliever Kevin Correia said. "So, it's basically in our hands. If we can win some games, we can get right back in it." San Diego (60-61) has lost eight of 10l, dropping from the NL West lead to third and falling below .500 for the first time since May 6. The Padres trail Los Angeles by four games. "There's no getting around it — we were awful this series," Padres manager Bruce Bochy said. "I was, the club, all of us. We just had a horrible series. We have to wash this off, regroup and get things going." In other games, it was: St. Louis 2, Cincinnati 1; New York 7, Philadelphia 2; Houston 7, Milwaukee 3; Atlanta 5, Washington 0; and Colorado 8, Arizona 4. At San Diego, Giants rookie Matt Cain (9-9) allowed one hit, struck out eight and walked six in 5 1-3 innings. Josh Barfield hit a pinch grand slam off Jack Taschner in the ninth to end the shutout. Jake Peavy (6-12) set a career high for losses, giving up three runs and three hits in seven innings with eight strikeouts. "It's up to us to have short memories and forget this series," Peavy said. Cardinals 2, Reds 1 Scott Rolen hit a tying home run in the seventh off Kyle Lohse and a winning single in the ninth against Ryan Franklin (2-6), boosting the Cardinals' NL Central lead back to 2 1/2 games over the second-place Reds. Ken Griffey Jr. put visiting Cincinnati ahead in the seventh against Jeff Weaver with his 25th homer, the 561st of his career. The drive, which came after Griffey fouled off six straight pitches, was his 1,042nd extra-base hit, breaking a tie with Pete Rose for 20th place. Jason Isringhausen (4-5) retired the Reds' 2-3-4 hitters in order in the ninth as St. Louis took two of three from Cincinnati. Mets 7, Phillies 2 Carlos Delgado ended a 2 1/2-week homer drought by connecting twice and driving in four runs as visiting New York avoided a four-game sweep. Carlos Beltran also hit a solo shot for the Mets, who have a 13-game lead over second-place Philadelphia in the NL East. John Maine (3-3) allowed two runs and eight hits in six innings, and New York reopened a 13-game NL East lead over the second-place Phillies. Ryan Howard tied David Ortiz for the major league lead with his 42nd homer as the Phillies remained 2 1/2 games behind NL wild card-leading Cincinnati. Rookie Scott Mathieson (1-4) gave up six runs and eight hits in four innings. Astros 7, Brewers 3 Lance Berkman and Aubrey Huff homered off Ben Sheets (3-5) and Willy Taveras extended his hitting streak to 20 games as visiting Houston stopped a five-game losing streak. Jason Hirsh (1-1) allowed three runs and three hits in 5 1-3 innings for his first major league win, walking four and striking out five in his second big league start. Making his fifth start since missing nearly three months with tendinitis in his right shoulder, Sheets gave up seven runs, 10 hits and four walks in seven innings. Braves 5, Nationals 0 Oscar Villarreal (9-1) pitched five innings of one-hit ball in his first start since April 8, 2003. He became the 12th starter used by the Braves this season. Edgar Renteria stopped an 0-for-24 skid with three singles and two RBIs at Washington, and Brian McCann homered. Jason Bergmann (0-1) made his second start in a row since being converted from relieving in the minors. He lasted six innings, allowing four runs, five hits, two walks and a wild pitch. Rockies 8, Diamondbacks 4 Colorado took a 6-0 lead in the second at Coors Field against Brandon Webb (13-5), who walked a season-high five in six innings and gave up five runs and eight hits. Josh Fogg (9-7) improved to 5-0 in his career against Arizona, giving up three runs and seven hits in five-plus innings. Ryan Spilborghs homered and threw out a runner out at the plate from left field.-AP