Mets poised not to repeat collapse
With 17 games to go last year, New York had a seven-game lead over the Phillies in the NL East. Then the bottom dropped out.
With 17 games left this year and a 3Z\x-game advantage in the division, the Mets are finding ways to win instead of lose.
David Wright had four hits and four RBI to help New York outslug Washington 13-10 on Wednesday night. It was the second straight game that the Mets bullpen blew a big lead against the lowly Nationals before hanging on.
"I don't think anybody in here is thinking about what happened last year," Wright said. "I just think we're going out and finding ways to win."
During their collapse last season, the Mets dropped five of six to the Nationals.
Carlos Delgado, who had two straight multihomer game coming into Wednesday, hit a go-ahead sacrifice fly in the seventh inning at Shea Stadium. Carlos Beltran had three hits and Jose Reyes swiped a bag to became the Mets career leader for steals.
"I'll tell you what was good about the game was I felt we were going to continue to score," Mets manager Jerry Manuel said. "There have been times during the year where I felt we wouldn't come back."
At Philadelphia, Ricky Nolasco struck out eight in 7X\c innings and Luis Gonzalez homered for Florida. Josh Willingham snapped a 3-all tie with an RBI double in the eighth and helped the Marlins win the three-game series. Dan Uggla added a two-run double in the ninth.Ryan Howard hit his major league-leading 42nd homer for the Phillies.
At San Diego, Manny Ramirez hit a pair of two-run homers, giving him 524 for his career, and Los Angeles beat San Diego for the Dodgers' 10th win in 11 games.The Dodgers extended their lead in the NL West to a season-high 3Z\x games over Arizona.
At St. Louis, Ted Lilly pitched eight sharp innings and Chicago capitalized on shaky fielding by injured Troy Glaus' replacement for its second win in nine games.Chicago held its 4Z\x-game lead in the NL Central over Milwaukee and won for the 15th time in its last 19 road games. The Cubs improved the league's best record to 87-58.
At San Francisco, Eugenio Velez hit a two-out, two-run triple in the ninth inning and San Francisco rallied to complete a three-game sweep.
At Milwaukee, Mike Cameron singled in the go-ahead run in the eighth inning, and Milwaukee rallied to avoid a three-game sweep.The NL wild card-leading Brewers, who have won three of their last 10 games, trailed 3-1 after six innings.
At Atlanta, Kelly Johnson homered twice and James Parr pitched six more scoreless innings for Atlanta.
