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St. Louis Cardinals fans probably don't want to see Tim Lincecum pitch at Busch Stadium again, but he'll be back for the all-star game in two weeks.

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THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Jeff Roberson

Tim Lincecum throws during the third inning.

Lincecum threw a two-hitter for his third complete game of the season, all in his last four starts, in the San Francisco Giants' 10-0 rout Monday night. Travis Ishikawa's three-run homer for a 4-0 lead in the fourth was way more than the right-hander needed . "The way Timmy's been pitching lately, after the first run I felt pretty comfortable," Ishikawa said.

Lincecum (8-2) is tied with teammate Matt Cain for the league lead in complete games and his 2.37 earned-run average is second in the NL after mastering the punchless Cardinals with his third career shutout and fifth career complete game.

He needed only 95 pitches to match his career low complete game and finished off the Cardinals in a snappy two hours, six minutes.

He faced only two three-ball counts all night and didn't walk a batter for the second time in three starts.

"Their tendencies against me were they don't get too deep in the count," Lincecum said. "Guys were swinging early and often, so I was just trying to give them pitches they couldn't hit out of the park."

Make that out of the infield.

Giants outfielders handled only seven chances.

"He's been on this roll for I don't know how many starts," manager Bruce Bochy said. "Tonight he did say it was one of his best games. I don't think he had a stressful inning."

The Cardinals weren't arguing that point.

"He worked us over," manager Tony La Russa said. "Everything looks the same until it gets to the plate."

Elsewhere in the National League it was: Chicago 3, Pittsburgh 1; Milwaukee 10, New York 6; Florida 4, Washington 2; Houston 3, San Diego 1; and Los Angeles 4, Colorado 2.

At St. Louis, Brad Thompson (2-4) took the loss for the Cardinals, who have lost five of six while scoring three or fewer runs in all of the setbacks.

Lincecum retired the first 14 in order, the early perfection ending when Rick Ankiel lofted a soft broken-bat single to centre with two outs in the fifth, then mowed down five more before Albert Pujols doubled off the left-field wall with one out in the seventh.

Then, the last eight Cardinals went quietly.

"I think he smells that," catcher Bengie Molina said. "He's close to the end and he wants to finish the game."

Pujols was the only runner to reach scoring position for the Cardinals, who have totalled two runs in two games since acquiring Mark DeRosa from the Indians.

Edgar Renteria's three-run double capped a five-run seventh as the Giants batted around against rookie Clayton Mortensen, whose contract was purchased from triple-A Memphis earlier in the day and made his major league debut.

Only one of the runs was earned because of a throwing error by second baseman Skip Schumaker.

Juan Uribe added his second homer of the season, and third in 30 career at-bats at four-year-old Busch Stadium, leading off the eighth off Mortensen.

Lincecum's eight strikeouts gave him the major league lead with 132 in 114 innings, and his 2.37 ERA is second in the NL. He's been nearly perfect in four starts against the Cardinals, winning all of them with a 1.61 ERA.

Over his last eight starts, he's 5-1 with a 1.27 ERA. He got an extra day of rest for this start and is 10-2 under that scenario.

Molina's RBI single off Thompson in the first snapped an 0-for-12 slump, and Nate Schierholtz and Renteria singled with one out in the fourth ahead of Ishikawa's fifth homer of the season for a 4-0 cushion.

Uribe's homer reached Big Mac Land in the third deck above the left-field wall.

Thompson, who has faltered in his bid to stay in the rotation when Kyle Lohse returns from a forearm strain, allowed four runs in six innings. He tried not to let pitching against Lincecum bother him.

"You still have to go out there and throw your game," Thompson said. "You can't worry about what he's doing. I see him out there, but I'm not worried about his line, what he's up to."

The Giants lead the majors with nine shutouts, including two straight counting a 7-0 win at Milwaukee on Sunday.

Dodgers 4, Rockies 2

At Los Angeles, Andre Ethier hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the 13th inning and the Dodgers beat Colorado.

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Brewers 10, Mets 6

At Milwaukee, Casey McGehee hit his first career grand slam and J.J. Hardy tied a career high with four hits, including a homer, for the Brewers.

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Cubs 3, Pirates 1

At Pittsburgh, Rich Harden of Victoria repeatedly worked out of trouble to win for the first time in more than six weeks and Ryan Theriot homered for Chicago.

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Marlins 4, Nationals 2

At Miami, Ricky Nolasco retired the final 13 batters he faced and Emilio Bonifacio drove in the go-ahead run in the eighth for Florida.

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Astros 3, Padres 1

At San Diego, Houston's Roy Oswalt dominated the Padres again, pitching a two-hitter and retiring his final 18 batters.

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Roy Halladay didn't have to do too much in his return from injury to impress Toronto Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston on Monday. Gaston was just happy to see his ace back on the mound.

"He's good, that's the good news," said Gaston after the Blue Jays lost to the Tampa Bay Rays 4-1.

"I think maybe his location wasn't quite as good as he would like it to be but still, and that's perfect. He got one pitch up but if a guy goes out there and gives up a couple of runs you'd take that every night."

Halladay (10-2) pitched well enough over six innings in his first start in 17 days but took the loss and Jeff Niemann (7-4) allowed four, hits two walks and one run through 7 1/3 innings to earn the win as the Rays won their sixth in a row.

Randy Choate took over from Dan Wheeler to get the final out to pick up his fourth save.

The game played before 15,665 at the Rogers Centre was the first of the year between the teams as the Blue Jays return to playing within the American League East following interleague play.

Elsewhere in the American League it was: Boston 4, Baltimore 0; Chicago 6, Cleveland 3; Los Angeles 5, Texas 2; Kansas City 4, Minnesota 2; and Oakland 7, Detroit 1.

At Toronto, Halladay used 88 pitches in giving up five hits and left for Jeremy Accardo with the Blue Jays trailing 2-0 on Carl Crawford's seventh home run of the season on an elevated 1-1 curveball in the third inning.

Halladay struck out seven and walked two his first start since June 12 against the Florida Marlins when he suffered a mild groin strain on his first batter of the fourth inning and had to come out of the game.

Halladay said he had no problems from the injury or from the layoff.

"Throwing in the bullpen everything was fine," Halladay said. "I didn't feel like I hadn't thrown in a long time. It's just a matter of consistency sometimes."

Halladay lamented the walk to B.J. Upton that preceded Crawford's homer and the pitch that the Rays' left fielder knocked over the fence.

"I just made a poor pitch," Halladay said. "Curveball kind of middle-in, up. It just has to be down more really. Just the one pitch cost me and I pitched behind a little bit there in the early going. But as far as stuff (was concerned) I felt it was good and felt everything was where it needed to be. I just have to pitch ahead a little bit better."

Accardo gave up two runs in the seventh, one on Pat Burrell's third homer of the season on a 1-1 slider to lead off the inning and the other on Upton's sacrifice fly. Two of Accardo's outs in the inning were on steal attempts at second.

Niemann, a 26-year-old rookie, was making his 15th start of the season and the 17th of his major-league career and reduced his earned-run average to 3.95 in pitching past the fifth inning for only the second time in his past six starts.

"You look at tape on the guy and he was all over the place on the most of the tapes we've seen," Gaston said. "But he threw strikes tonight and got his breaking ball over. That's the key, throwing strikes."

"He had a lot of late life on his pitches," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "I saw a lot of late life on the fastball and some really good depth on the curveball."

Niemann was removed after Rod Barajas's run-scoring single with one out in the eighth.

Halladay struck out the game's first batter, Upton, and the next two batters reached base, Crawford on a single and Evan Longoria on a walk. But Carlos Pena grounded into a double play.

Blue Jays third baseman Scott Rolen hit a double to lead off the second inning to give him a career-high 17-game hit string. He stole third where he was stranded.

Crawford hit his homer after Upton opened the inning with the walk, stole second despite a pitch out and took third on Barajas's throwing error.

Jose Bautista, who has started at third and in left field this season, started for the first time in right field this season and he passed his first test in the fourth inning when he threw out Gabe Gross who was trying for a double. Regular right-fielder Alex Rios was rested and Russ Adams made his second start in left field.

Red Sox 4, Orioles 0

At Baltimore, Jon Lester pitched seven shutout innings and J.D. Drew came within a double of hitting for the cycle for Boston.

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White Sox 6, Indians 3

At Cleveland, Gavin Floyd shut out the Indians on five singles over 7 2-3 innings and Chicago climbed back to .500 by handing Cleveland its 11th loss in 13 games.

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Angels 5, Rangers 2

At Arlington, Texas, Juan Rivera and Kendry Morales hit back-to-back home runs that put Los Angeles ahead and the AL West-leading Angels won their sixth straight game.

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Royals 4, Twins 2

At Kansas City, Mo., Miguel Olivo homered, tripled and drove in two runs and Luke Hochevar overcame some shaky moments in seven scoreless innings as the Royals ended a five-game home losing streak.

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Athletics 7, Tigers 1

At Oakland, Calif., Mark Ellis hit a two-run homer in his second game back from a two-month injury absence, and Ryan Sweeney homered and drove in two runs for the Athletics.