MILWAUKEE — Everyone from Cubs manager Lou Piniella to fellow starter Ryan Dempster needled Ted Lilly about having to follow up Carlos Zambrano's no-hitter.

Lilly, a left-hander, sure came close to one of his own.

Lilly pitched no-hit ball until Mark Loretta's seventh-inning single, and the Chicago Cubs beat the Astros, 6-1, yesterday to sweep a two-game series moved from Houston by Hurricane Ike.

"There were a couple of guys before the game that let me know I had a lot of work to do to try and follow up 'Z'," Lilly said. "There's so many things that it takes to go into a no-hitter for it to take place and so my expectations were just to go out there and try and make good pitches and be aggressive."

Hard-charging Houston had won 14 of 15 coming into the series, but the Cubs left the Astros 2 1/2 games back of Milwaukee and Philadelphia, which share the NL wild-card lead.

On Sunday, Zambrano pitched the Cubs' first no-hitter since Milt Pappas in 1972, leading Chicago to a 5-0 win. And until the seventh, Lilly appeared headed to a repeat.

"After what 'Z' did last night, it would have been fun to do something I'm not sure has been done — yet," Lilly said. "You don't know if you'll ever have that opportunity again, but I'll take tonight the way it was."

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.

Lilly (15-9) faced the minimum through six innings, allowing only a leadoff walk in the second to Lance Berkman.

Jeff Samardzija, Carlos Marmol and Bob Howry combined to pitch the final two innings.

Dodgers 8, Pirates 2: 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 visiting Los Angeles past Pittsburgh. Kuroda (9-10) permitted one runner to reach third. He hadn't won in six road starts since beating Houston on July 2.

Diamondbacks 3, Giants 1: Adam Dunn homered with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning to lead host Arizona past San Francisco. Chris Young led off the eighth with a single to left off Brad Hennessey (1-2). The right-hander retired the next two hitters before Dunn hit his first pitch into the right-field stands.

Nationals 7, Mets 2: John Lannan (9-13) limited New York to one hit over seven innings, Anderson Hernandez delivered a two-run single off Pedro Martinez (5-5) in the sixth, and host Washington beat New York. The Mets' lead over idle Philadelphia in the NL East fell to a half-game.

Padres 11, Rockies 5: Adrian Gonzalez homered and drove in four runs, Wade LeBlanc earned his first career win and visiting San Diego beat Colorado. LeBlanc (1-1), making his third career start, allowed four runs and seven hits with six strikeouts in six innings.