Oswalt helps Phillies incrase lead in NL East

Roy Oswalt and a pair of relievers combined on a one-hitter and the NL East-leading Philadelphia Phillies beat Atlanta, 1-0, last night for their 10th straight win, increasing their bulge over the Braves to six games.

Raul Ibañez hit an RBI double with two outs in the eighth inning, helping the Phillies reduce their magic number for clinching their fourth straight division title to four. It was the Phillies' first home sweep over the Braves since 2001.

Oswalt allowed just one hit - a clean double by Martin Prado in the fourth - and one walk in seven scoreless innings.

The Braves began the day with a one-game lead over San Diego for the wild card.

Cubs 2, Giants 0

Randy Wells (8-13) pitched 7 2/3 innings and Kosuke Fukudome homered for host Chicago. San Francisco led San Diego by a half-game and Colorado by 21/2 in the NL West coming in.

Twins 5, Indians 1

A day after becoming the first major- league team to clinch a playoff berth this year, host Minnesota rested most of its regulars and won behind the pitching of Nick Blackburn to complete a three-game sweep.

Minnesota clinched its sixth division title in nine years Tuesday night when the Chicago White Sox lost at Oakland.

Blackburn (10-10) became the sixth Twins pitcher to reach double digits in victories, allowing one run and five hits in seven innings.

Jose Morales had three RBIs and Alexei Casilla had three hits for the Twins, who have won nine of 11. The Twins have sold out 74 straight home games in their new ballpark and set a season home attendance record with 3,063,327.

Before the game, Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said Francisco Liriano will get the start when the AL playoffs open next month, "He's been winging it pretty good," Gardenhire said.- AP