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Rollins' hit streak at 32, but Phillies fall

Phillies chasing Astros in NL wild card race

Image: RollinsAP
Philadelphia's Jimmy Rollins gets a single to center against the New York Mets on Tuesday, extending his hitting streak to a franchise-best 32 games.

PHILADELPHIA - The New York Mets missed the playoffs, but they’re taking the Philadelphia Phillies down with them.

Jose Reyes was 4-for-5 with three extra-base hits, leading the Mets to a 3-2 victory over the Phillies on Tuesday night.

Philadelphia’s loss clinched the NL East title for Atlanta, its unprecedented 14th straight division crown.

Jimmy Rollins extended his hitting streak to a team-record 32 games with a single in the seventh for the Phillies, who fell 2½ games behind Houston in the NL wild-card race.

The Mets were eliminated with the Astros’ 3-1 victory over St. Louis.

“We’re down three games (in the loss column) with four left. That’s a hard battle,” Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. “At the same time, we don’t quit.”

Juan Padilla (3-1) pitched two scoreless innings in relief to get the win. Aaron Heilman finished with two scoreless innings for his fourth save, striking out Bobby Abreu with a runner on second to end it.

Reyes singled, doubled twice, tripled and scored two runs. Carlos Beltran drove in two runs as the Mets snapped Jon Lieber’s four-game winning streak.

“The satisfaction is I challenged these guys two weeks ago to keep playing hard and they have,” Mets manager Willie Randolph said.

Lieber (16-13) gave up three runs and nine hits in seven innings. He hadn’t lost a regular-season start in September or October since 2001, going 12-0 in that span and 4-0 this season.

Victor Zambrano allowed two unearned runs and two hits in 4 2-3 innings in his first start since Sept. 2. Zambrano replaced Pedro Martinez in the rotation after the three-time Cy Young Award winner was shut down for the season.

Helped by New York’s shoddy defense, the Phillies finally broke through against Zambrano with two runs in the fifth after getting just one hit through the first four.

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Lieber, who was 6-for-70 at the plate, started the inning with a double to left-center. After Rollins struck out, Kenny Lofton reached on first baseman Mike Jacobs’ second error of the game.

Lieber scored when shortstop Reyes missed catcher Mike Piazza’s throw to second on Lofton’s steal. Lofton advanced to third as the ball sailed into center field for an error on Reyes. Chase Utley then walked and Lofton scored on Abreu’s groundout to cut it to 3-2.

Zambrano left after walking Pat Burrell, but Kazuhisa Ishii came in and retired Ryan Howard on a grounder to third to leave runners at the corners.

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Rollins pumped his fist as he ran to first base after hitting a sharp grounder up the middle off Padilla to start the seventh. He got a standing ovation and tipped his helmet to the crowd while standing on first base.

The Phillies had two runners on, but Padilla fanned Burrell to end the inning. Burrell also struck out with runners on first and second to end the first. Abreu struck out, leaving a runner on third in the third.


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