• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Astros win eighth straight as Wolf blanks Cubs

Sep 4, 2008 - 4:05 AM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- Randy Wolf tossed his first complete game in over four years to lead the Houston Astros to their eighth consecutive victory, a 4-0 triumph over the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday.

The Cubs (85-55) have lost five straight but remain 4 1/2 games in front of the Milwaukee Brewers (80-59) in the National League Central. The Brewers lost the New York Mets, 9-2, earlier.

Wolf (9-11), who allowed six hits and two walks with eight strikeouts, recorded his first complete game shutout since throwing one for the Philadelphia Phiillies on April 24, 2004 against the Montreal Expos.

"What a terrific outing by Randy Wolf," Astros manager Cecil Cooper said. "At the end of the game, he really wanted to stay in there and I wasn't about to take him out."

The 32-year-old Wolf, who threw 128 pitches, seemed to get better as the night went on. The lefthander retired the last seven batters he faced en route to recording his 12th career complete game and seventh shutout.

"It is really gratifying," Wolf said. "I have been through a lot with two surgeries in the past three or four years, it's been a long way back and it makes it sweet to do it against a good team and at Wrigley (Field)."

The Astros provided all the run support he would need in the second inning as Humberto Quintero delivered an RBI single to give Houston a 1-0 edge.

Ty Wigginton extended the lead to 3-0 in the fifth, sending a first-pitch offering from Ryan Dempster (15-7) over the left-center field wall for his 22nd home run.

"I think the only reason mine made it out of the park was that it stayed low and the wind didn't have a chance to knock to the ball down," Wigginton said. "The Cubs hit some balls good that the wind did knock down and Wolf took advantage of it."

Houston added an insurance run in the ninth on good base-running by David Newhan, who stole home when Chicago second baseman Ryan Theriot and first baseman Derrek Lee had Michael Bourn caught in a rundown.

"We are going to play like this everyday and keep trying to pick up ground," Cooper said. "It's not over until it's over."

Dempster pitched seven frames, giving up three runs and eight hits with three walks and seven strikeouts.

"Dempster pitched pretty well tonight," Cubs manager Lou Pinella said. "He made one bad pitch, he hung a slider to Wiggington and he hit it out of the ballpark."

While Chicago is in the midst of its longest losing streak, it will be without its ace Carlos Zambrano for an undetermined period of time. Zambrano, who missed his scheduled MRI early Wednesday, will also miss his next scheduled start Sunday because of a "dead arm."

"We are all right. It's frustrating, it's frustrating for everybody," Dempster said. "It's frustrating for me because I felt I could have done better than I did. It's frustrating for the hitters who hit the ball good and saw it go nowhere.

"The most important thing we have to remember is that we are going to go through bumps in the road sometimes. When these things happen later in the season they get magnified."