NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Phillies Fall Out of First Place

They had their best pitcher going, a fresh bullpen and a three-run lead. Surely, the Philadelphia Phillies would finally end their losing streak.

Or maybe not.

Their NL East lead has disappeared as quickly as Dave Clark’s decisive three-run homer Wednesday night, when the Pirates scored five runs on homers in the eighth inning and sent the Phillies to their fifth consecutive loss, 7-4, at Pittsburgh.

“We send our best pitcher [Tyler Green] out there and he throws a hell of game, and then we [mess] it up in five minutes,” reliever Norm Charlton said. “We’ve had trouble scoring runs, and we got four. We should have won.”

Philadelphia’s eighth loss in nine games, combined with Atlanta’s 4-1 victory over the Dodgers, dropped the Phillies a game behind the Braves. A week ago, the Phillies led by five games.

Clark, batting .562 as a pinch-hitter, gave the Pirates the lead with a pinch-homer. Al Martin followed with a two-run shot off Ricky Bottalico, who failed to hold a 3-2 lead.

Green left with a 3-2 lead and a man on second with two out in the eighth, but the Phillies’ usually reliable bullpen couldn’t hold the lead.

Phillie Manager Jim Fregosi didn’t blame his bullpen, especially on a night when his offense continued to struggle with only six hits.

“That’s the first time in a while either one of those guys didn’t get the job done,” Fregosi said, referring to Charlton and Bottalico.

Dan Plesac (3-0) pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings for the victory.

Cincinnati 9, San Francisco 0--Benito Santiago homered twice and Jose Rijo pitched five shutout innings for the Reds at Cincinnati.

It was the most effective of Rijo’s three starts since receiving a cortisone injection to stave off surgery on his pitching elbow. He gave up four hits to improve his record to 4-4.

Santiago, who was on the disabled list nearly for two months after having arthroscopic surgery on his elbow, homered in his first at-bat and again in the eighth inning.

Giant starter Mark Leiter (3-6) has lost five in a row.

New York 5, Chicago 4--The Mets’ four-game losing streak and the Cubs’ four-game winning streak ended when Bobby Bonilla hit a two-out RBI single in the ninth inning at New York.

Brett Butler had originally struck out but reached base on a wild pitch, then stole second. He scored on Bonilla’s line-drive hit to right, easily beating the throw from Sammy Sosa.

San Diego 7, Florida 4--Melvin Nieves hit a two-run pinch-homer in the 10th inning and Phil Clark followed with a solo shot to lift the Padres at Miami.

Bryce Florie (2-0) pitched 2 1/3 innings of hitless relief for the victory. Former Marlin Trevor Hoffman struck out the side in the 10th for his 11th save.

Jeff Conine drove in all four runs for the Marlins.

St. Louis 4, Montreal 3--Tripp Cromer singled off the glove of third baseman Sean Berry to score Darnell Coles from second in the 10th inning and give the Cardinals the victory at St. Louis.

Coles reached base when he was hit by Mel Rojas. Jose Oquendo sacrificed Coles to second, and Rojas intentionally walked John Mabry to set the stage for Cromer.

Berry was four for five.

Colorado 4, Houston 2--The teams that had staged slugfests the first two games of the series--a 15-10 win for Colorado and a 16-8 victory for Houston--engaged in a pitchers’ duel at Denver.

Winner Kevin Ritz (7-3) went seven innings, giving up two runs and four hits.

The Astros did not get a hit in the final 6 2/3 innings.