Mets, Phillies tied with three games left
The New York Mets' lead in the NL East is gone. They might not even be in the playoffs at all if they can't snap out of their near historic funk.
The spiraling Mets managed just 3 hits off Joel Pineiro and Jason Isringhausen in a 3-0 loss to the visiting St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday night that dropped them into a first-place tie with Philadelphia in the division.
"We're tied now, so now we've got three games to get it done," manager Willie Randolph said. "That's the way baseball goes and we kind of made our own bed here, so we've got to fight through this."
Not even Pedro Martinez could save New York, which had led the division alone every day since May 16.
The Mets (87-72) were ahead by 7 games on Sept. 12 with 17 remaining but have lost 10 of 14 overall and seven straight at home, a monumental tailspin for a team that counted on being in the playoffs.
"I think we're due to have something special happen to us because in the time I've been here I don't think we've had a little stretch playing games like that and kind of getting away from us that easy," Martinez said. "So I'm expecting something good to happen."
No major-league team has failed to finish first after having at least a seven-game lead with 17 to play. But with three games remaining in the regular season -- a weekend series at home against Florida -- the Mets might fail to win the division or qualify as the wild card. The Phillies host Washington, which is coming off a three-game sweep at Shea Stadium. The Mets host Florida.
Phillies 6, Braves 4: Ryan Howard hit his 44th homer, Pat Burrell also connected, and host Philadelphia roughed up John Smoltz, before hanging on for a victory over Atlanta to move into a tie with New York atop the NL East.
Chipper Jones and Mark Teixeira hit consecutive homers for the Braves, who were mathematically eliminated from the division race.
Diamondbacks 8, Pirates 0: Last-minute replacement Micah Owings pitched 6½ innings and went 4-for-4 with 3 doubles and 3 RBI to help Arizona stop three-game losing streak by beating host Pittsburgh.
The Diamondbacks assured themselves of holding at least a 1-game lead in the NL West when they open a three-game series today at Colorado. Arizona began Thursday 1 game ahead of San Diego.