PHILADELPHIA — After a sensational and surprising debut with San Francisco, Brad Penny kept his eyes on the Red Sox game on TV as he dressed.

"Those are my buddies over there," he said. "I love all those guys."

Penny would still be with Boston if he pitched like he did against Philadelphia last night. He threw five-hit ball over eight shutout innings in his first start with the Giants, leading the NL wildcard contenders to a 4-0 win over the Phillies.

"It's more than we expected, but I just think this guy was on a mission tonight and it showed," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said.

Penny (1-0) was back in his All-Star form in his first outing since he was released last week by Boston. Penny went 7-8 with a 5.61 ERA this season — including 1-6 in his last 11 starts. He could be a huge boost to San Francisco's NL wild-card push if he can pitch like this the rest of September.

"Some things are hard to explain," Bochy said of Penny's Boston collapse, "and that's one of them."

Penny's lone jam came in the fifth inning when the first two batters reached base. He got All-Star Raul Ibanez to fly out, and escaped the inning without any further damage.

Juan Uribe and Aaron Rowand each homered for the Giants, who won their 73rd game surpassing last season's total.

CUBS 2, ASTROS 0

Ted Lilly (10-8) spaced four hits over eight innings to reach the 10-win mark for the seventh consecutive season and Derrek Lee hit a two-run homer, leading host Chicago. Houston's Aaron Boone returned five months after open-heart surgery.

CARDINALS 10, BREWERS 3

Chris Carpenter (15-3) allowed three runs on eight hits in six innings to win his 10th straight decision, and Skip Schumaker was 4 for 4 with two RBIs as host St. Louis clobbered Milwaukee to open a 10 1/2-game lead in the NL Central.

ROCKIES 5, METS 2

Jason Giambi's pinch-hit, two-run single off Brian Stokes broke an eighth-inning tie and Yorvit Torrealba followed with an RBI single as host Colorado beat New York to keep a one-game lead over San Francisco in the NL wild-card race.

REDS 5, PIRATES 3

Brandon Phillips and Drew Stubbs homered to help host Cincinnati sweep the four-game series and hand Pittsburgh its seventh straight loss.

PADRES 7, NATIONALS 0

Kevin Correia (10-10) scattered three hits over 7 2/3 innings, and Adrian Gonzalez and Chase Headley hit two-run doubles as host San Diego beat Washington.

MARLINS 8, BRAVES 7

After Yunel Escobar homered in the top of the ninth off Leo Nunez (4-4) to tie the score, Wes Helms hit a one-out homer off Mike Gonzalez (3-4) in the bottom half of the inning to lift Florida over Atlanta.

DIAMONDBACKS 4, DODGERS 1

Brandon Allen's two-run homer highlighted a four-run top of the fifth inning and Arizona went on to beat Los Angeles and Chad Billingsley (12-9), who was cruising along, having retired the first 13 batters he faced.