Mets Lose Again; Braves Clinch

The New York Mets are keeping up a brave front, but Sunday their hopes of making the playoffs continued to fade.

“We’re not dead yet,” Met reliever John Franco said at Philadelphia after his team’s sixth consecutive defeat, a 3-2 loss to the Phillies. “We’re long from being dead. I still believe.”

A day after Robert Person defeated his former team, ex-Met Paul Byrd (15-10) stymied New York, and another former Met, Rico Brogna, homered for the second consecutive day.

The Mets, which led Cincinnati by four games a week ago in the National League wild-card race, trail the Reds by one game with six to play after Sunday’s games. The Mets also were eliminated from the NL East race, when Atlanta defeated Montreal.

The Mets, swept by the Braves last week in Atlanta, are not in position to gain a playoff berth for the first time since July 21. And the sweep at Philadelphia came at the hands of a team that entered the series with 34 losses in 44 games.

“I hoped we’d win the series,” Brogna said. “I never dreamed we’d sweep them.”

Met Manager Bobby Valentine, who surprised reporters Saturday by saying he should be fired if the Mets don’t make the playoffs after they ended 1998 with five consecutive losses to miss the postseason, had nothing to add on that note after this game. Players tipped chairs over as they left the dugout, leaving General Manager Steve Phillips sitting alone and gripping a baseball.

“This stuff’s going to change,” Valentine vowed. “It always does. We’re too good for it not to.”

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Atlanta 10, Montreal 0--John Smoltz won for the first time in more than a month and Atlanta clinched its eighth consecutive division title with a victory over the Expos at Montreal.

Eddie Perez’s three-run double capped a five-run first off Jeremy Powell (3-8) and Smoltz (10-8) did the rest from there. Perez added a solo homer in the eighth to make it 9-0.

Smoltz gave up six hits in eight innings to win for the first time since Aug. 24 against Cincinnati. Smoltz, who was 1-6 in his previous 15 starts, also went two for three with a double and was hit by a pitch.

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Pittsburgh 8, Chicago 4--Kevin Young hit a three-run homer to cap a four-run 11th inning as the Pirates won at Chicago.

Once again, Sammy Sosa was held without a home run. In his Wrigley Field season finale and on the day Mark McGwire hit No. 60, Sosa was 0 for 4 with a walk. He has not homered in seven consecutive games.

Young drove in five runs and reached 101 runs batted in while the Pirates avoided a four-game sweep.

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Colorado 8, Florida 6--Todd Helton hit a three-run home run in the sixth inning and singled in the go-ahead run in the seventh to lead the Rockies at Miami.

Helton’s single broke a 5-5 tie, scoring Kurt Abbott from second and giving Helton his 111th RBI.

Former Florida and current Colorado Manager Jim Leyland, who is retiring at the end of the season, received an ovation from the crowd before the game. He led the Marlins to the 1997 World Series title.

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Arizona 7, San Francisco 1--Omar Daal gave up four hits in 6 2/3 innings and Greg Colbrunn had three hits, including a home run, to lead the Diamondbacks at San Francisco.

Daal (16-9) struck out three, walked two and hit three batters as the Diamondbacks won their fifth in a row and seventh of their last eight.

Daal left the game after Giants left fielder Marvin Benard stepped on his left foot on a play at first base in the seventh. He walked off the field under his own power and the injury did not appear serious.

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Milwaukee 11, Houston 3--Marquis Grissom went four for six with a home run and five runs batted in, backing rookie Kyle Peterson in the Brewers’ victory at Milwaukee. Houston, a half-game ahead of Cincinnati in the NL Central, dropped the final two games of the three-game series.