Cubs left to still strive for first

First place will have to wait for another day.

Not since April 12, 2006 have the Cubs been in first place in the Central Division.

A victory Monday night could have put them there, in a tie with Milwaukee, but Philadelphia left-hander Cole Hamels proved to be too tough in a 4-1 Phillies victory at Wrigley Field.

Hamels (12-5) allowed only 3 hits in 8 innings and struck out eight, with Ryan Theriot's solo home run in the fifth accounting for the only run.

"Hamels was outstanding. We couldn't have asked for anything more," said Phillies reliever Brett Myers, who pitched the ninth inning for his seventh save. "Basically, he dominated the game."

Two Phillies home runs backed Hamels -- both by ex-White Sox. Aaron Rowand hit a 3-run homer off Ted Lilly in the third inning, and Tadahito Iguchi a solo shot in the fifth.

"I'm sure White Sox fans are happy tonight," Rowand said.

Lilly (11-5) failed in his attempt to win his seventh straight start, leaving after 5 innings and 94 pitches.

"Lilly's control wasn't good tonight," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said.

"This was a matchup I was looking forward to and I obviously wanted better results," Lilly said. "I'm disappointed in my stuff. I had the opportunity to step up and stay with him with what he was doing. He outpitched me."

The loss to Hamels made the Cubs 9-16 against left-handed starters, a stat Piniella finds baffling. "We notice the same thing you do," he said. "I don't really have a definitive answer for you."

The Phillies won for the ninth time in 10 games despite a recent string of injuries, the most serious being the broken right hand suffered by star second baseman Chase Utley last week.

Utley's injury led to the trade with the White Sox for Iguchi.

Two more Phillies went down Monday. Starting right fielder Shane Victorino strained his right calf running out a grounder in the fourth inning, and replacement Michael Bourn sprained his left ankle two innings later when he tripped over the bullpen mound chasing a foul pop.

"That's the way it's been going," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. "But our team just keep playing."

Hamels used his fastball and changeup to keep the Cubs off balance.

"He's got one of the best changeups around," Theriot said. "When you can locate your changeup like a fastball or a curveball, it's pretty tough to get anything going offensively."

Hamels thought his fastball was his best pitch.

"I wasn't locating my curveball and I had such good success with my fastball, I figured why change it?" Hamels said. "Eight innings later, it was a pretty good game."

Despite the loss, the Cubs are 1 game behind the Brewers after trailing them by 8ˆ¨ on June 23.

"It's been a nice climb," said Piniella, whose patience with his team has paid off. "I thought we needed to stabilize and we needed to start improving in a few areas.

"I told our people, just have a little patience, that things would start getting better. I didn't see a bull rush, but I saw steady improvement, and that's really what we've been able to do."

Phillies 4, Cubs 1

At the plate: Phillies starter Cole Hamels pretty much had his way with the Cubs. He allowed 3 hits in 8 innings, 1 of them Ryan Theriot's third home run of the season leading off the sixth. Theriot also singled.

On the mound: Ted Lilly failed to win his seventh straight start, exiting after 5 innings trailing 4-1. He surrendered a 3-run homer to Aaron Rowand in the third and a solo blast by Tadahito Iguchi in the fifth. Lilly hadn't lost since June 5 at Milwaukee. Cubs relievers Michael Wuertz, Rocky Cherry and Ryan Dempster combined for 4 scoreless innings.

-- Tim Sassone