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 "I thought it was going to be easy," he said. "I thought I'd get 15, 20, 100 of these. Seven years later, I finally finish up another."
Sheets pitched a five-hitter Sunday to lead the Milwaukee Brewers past the San Francisco Giants 7-0. He struck out eight and retired his final 10 batters.
"He was about as dominant as he could be for me," Milwaukee manager Ned Yost said. "That's Ben Sheets out there at his finest. Right from the beginning, attacking."
Sheets (1-0) pitched his other shutout on May 29, 2001, a five-hitter against St. Louis.
"It's just hard to throw zeros at a big league team for nine innings, I don't care how good you are," said Sheets, who improved his career record to 74-74 in 192 starts.
In other NL games it was Cincinnati 8, Philadelphia 2; Arizona 5, Colorado 2 in 10 innings; Atlanta 3, New York 1; Los Angeles 3, San Diego 2; Chicago 3, Houston 2; St. Louis 3, Washington 0; and Pittsburgh 9, Florida 2.
At Milwaukee, Ryan Braun fell a triple short of the cycle, going 3-for-5 with three RBIs and Gabe Kapler homered for the second time in as many days as the Brewers scored in the second, third, fourth and fifth innings off Barry Zito (0-2).
Zito, who reached 87 mph, allowed five runs -- three earned -- and eight hits in five innings.
"The results aren't what I want, but I made a lot better pitches consistently and got ahead consistently," he said.
Reds 8, Phillies 2
Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 594th career homer, a two-run drive against visiting Philadelphia.
Griffey's first homer of the season, a drive off Brett Myers (0-1), left him six shy of becoming the sixth player in major league history to reach 600 homers. He would join Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays and Sammy Sosa.
Jeff Keppinger homered and drove in three runs for the Reds, and Edinson Volquez (1-0) struck out eight in 5 1-3 innings.
Diamondbacks 5, Rockies 2
Mark Reynolds hit a two-run homer in the ninth off Manny Corpas and Stephen Drew hit a tiebreaking drive against Micah Bowie (0-1) leading off a three-run 10th as the visiting Diamondbacks completed a three-game sweep against the team that beat Arizona 4-0 in last year's NL championship series.
Colorado, which lost its fifth straight, led 1-0 before Reynolds homered. Matt Holliday homered in the ninth off Brandon Lyon (1-1), who blew his second save chance.
Chad Qualls walked the first two batters in the 10th, then got his first save when Ryan Spilborghs grounded into double play and Troy Tulowitzki lined out.
Braves 3, Mets 1
John Smoltz (1-0) allowed two hits over five scoreless innings in his season debut to beat Johan Santana (1-1) as Atlanta completed a two-game sweep of the rain-shortened series.
Santana gave up only one run in seven innings -- Yunel Escobar doubled in Mark Kotsay in the third
-- and Mark Teixeira hit a two-run homer off Aaron Heilman in the eighth at Turner Field.
Ryan Church hit an RBI single with two outs in the ninth off Rafael Soriano, who completed a five-hitter and got his first save of the season when Teixeira made a diving stop of Brian Schneider's sharp grounder to first.
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Dodgers 3, Padres 2
Trevor Hoffman (0-2) allowed Chin-lung Hu's tiebreaking RBI single in the ninth at San Diego. The career saves leader (526) also lost Tuesday when he blew a save against Houston and has a 12.27 ERA in four games.
Jonathan Broxton (1-0) pitched 1 1-3 innings for the win, and Takashi Saito got three outs for his first save.
Cubs 3, Astros 2
Derrek Lee hit a tiebreaking homer against Oscar Villarreal (0-2) in the seventh at Wrigley Field, Lee's third homer of the season. He didn't hit his first homer last season until the 21st game and finished the season with only 22.
Carlos Zambrano (1-0) struck out seven in seven innings, allowing two runs and seven hits with no walks, and Kerry Wood pitched a perfect ninth for his third save.
Alfonso Soriano was 1-for-24 this season when homered off Brandon Backe for a 2-1 lead in the fifth. Miguel Tejada hit his first homer with Houston leading off the seventh.
Cardinals 3, Nationals 0
Kyle Lohse (1-0) allowed four hits in seven innings, Rick Ankiel homered and St. Louis completed a three-game sweep of visiting Washington.
Despite a major league-high nine players on the disabled list, the Cardinals have won five straight since losing on opening day and are 5-1 for the first time since winning seven of eight to start 2000.
Jason Isringhausen pitched the ninth for his third save, helped by a leaping catch by Ankiel in center field on a Lastings Milledge drive.
Rookie John Lannan (0-1) allowed two runs in 6 2-3 innings for the Nationals, who have lost four in a row after a 3-0 start.
Pirates 9, Marlins 2
Ian Snell (1-0) struck out 10 in six innings, allowing two runs -- one earned
-- and four hits.
Xavier Nady homered, and Nate McLouth had three hits and scored three runs for visiting Pittsburgh, which finished with 15 hits. Chris Gomez went 3-for-4.
Rick VandenHurk (0-1) gave up four runs and six hits in 2 1-3 innings.
[Associated Press]
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