Phillies' Padilla puzzles Cards

The Associated Press

ST. LOUIS -- Vicente Padilla pitched eight scoreless innings and Bobby Abreu and Pat Burrell each homered to lead the Philadelphia Phillies to a 4-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday night.

The first-place Cardinals remained four games ahead of Houston in the race for first place in the NL Central.

Padilla (13-8) retired 10 straight Cardinals before a one-out single by Mike Matheny in the fifth. He allowed four hits overall and didn't walk a batter. He struck out eight.

Jose Mesa came on with two on and two outs in the ninth and retired Edgar Renteria for his 34th save in 43 chances. The Phillies won their fourth straight game.

Abreu had three hits and also hit a solo homer in the third inning against Andy Benes (3-4), giving him five longballs in the last nine games and 16 on the season. Abreu hit a game-winning homer in the 14th inning on Friday night.

Abreu doubled in the fifth inning to send Jimmy Rollins to third base. Burrell followed with a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0.

Burrell hit a two-run homer in the ninth, his 32nd of the year, to make the score 4-0.

Benes gave up two runs and seven hits in 6 1-3 innings.

The Cardinals put their leadoff man on in the sixth when J.D. Drew reached on a throwing error by second baseman Marlon Anderson. But Jim Edmonds struck out and Albert Pujols grounded into a double play to end inning. Only one Cardinal got as far as third base.