New York stay gives Phillies advantage

Jon Lieber, David Bell, and Ryan Howard helped the Philadelphia Phillies leave New York with the wild-card lead.

Lieber allowed four hits in seven innings, and Bell blooped a two-run single in the first after Tom Glavine misplayed a potential inning-ending grounder to lead Philadelphia over the Mets, 3-1, yesterday.

Howard added a ninth-inning homer for Philadelphia, which began the day with a half-game lead in the wild-card race. The Phillies won two straight after wasting a lead in the opener of the three-game series and headed to Washington to complete their 12-game trip. The team then returns to Philadelphia for a homestand against wild-card rivals Houston and Florida, and East-leading Atlanta.

New York, which dropped 2 1/2 games behind the Phillies, starts a trip today that takes it to Florida, Atlanta, and St. Louis. The Mets were in position to take the wild-card lead before Pedro Martinez failed to hold a 2-0 lead against the Phillies in an 8-2 loss Wednesday night.

Braves 8, Nationals 7 -- Andruw Jones led off the bottom of the 10th with his major league-leading 44th homer for Atlanta, which squandered a 7-1 lead before salvaging a split of the four-game series with its East rival.

Kyle Davies (7-3), called up from the minors earlier in the day, got the win with three scoreless innings.

Astros 3, Reds 1 -- Roy Oswalt remained perfect against Cincinnati and the Astros swept the three-game series in Houston. The righthander improved to 15-0 in 19 appearances against the Reds, the most wins without a loss by any pitcher against one team in major league history.

Padres 6, Brewers 5 -- At Milwaukee, Khalil Greene hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning and San Diego (67-66) crept back above .500 with the victory.