Mets Rusching Toward Berth

Todd Zeile and Timo Perez homered to support the pitching of left-hander Glendon Rusch and the New York Mets clinched no worse than a tie for the National League wild-card berth by beating the Philadelphia Phillies, 3-2, Sunday at Philadelphia.

Rusch (11-11) allowed one run and five hits--including two infield singles on comebackers--in eight innings. He struck out seven and walked none, retiring 14 of his final 15 batters.

It was the 10th time in 29 starts that Rusch has not walked a batter.

“I just stayed aggressive,” he said. “I got ahead of most of the hitters. That’s how you win.”

In his previous start, on Wednesday, Rusch got chased by the Atlanta Braves after allowing six runs in 1 2/3 innings.

“It shows you how tough Glendon is,” Met Manager Bobby Valentine said. “He probably pitched his best game of the year coming off one of his worst.”

Colorado 9, Florida 3--Todd Helton hit his 38th homer and also stole home as the Rockies avoided a three-game sweep by beating the Marlins at Denver.

“Does the guy ever swing and miss,” Florida Manager John Boles said about Helton, who hit .457 in nine games this season against the Marlins.

Helton went three for five, raising his major league-leading average to .376.

Atlanta 14, Montreal 5--Javy Lopez hit a three-run homer and the Braves had 21 hits at Montreal to lower their magic number for clinching the NL East to four.

Andy Ashby (12-12) won his fourth consecutive start as the Braves, seeking their ninth straight division title, set season highs for runs and hits and maintained a 3 1/2-game lead over the Mets.

Arizona 8, San Francisco 3--Matt Williams hit a grand slam in a seven-run second inning against Livan Hernandez (16-11) at San Francisco and the Diamondbacks staved off elimination in the NL wild-card race.

Williams had five RBIs, matching his season high for the Diamondbacks, who dropped out of contention by losing seven of their previous nine games.

Chicago 10, St. Louis 5--Rookie Corey Patterson hit an inside-the-park home run in the seventh inning at Chicago and the Cubs overcame Will Clark’s grand slam and five RBIs.

The Cubs trailed the NL Central champions, 5-2, before a seven-run sixth inning. Pat Hentgen (15-11) took the loss.

After Patterson struck out leading off the fourth, Sammy Sosa talked to him. “He told me things to think about. ‘Be smart, go the other way,’ ” Patterson said. “He said don’t worry about all the strikeouts.”

Said Sosa, laughing: “I told him to give me an inside-the-park home run and he did.”

Cincinnati 4, Houston 3--Chris Stynes hit a two-run homer off Ocatvio Dotel (3-6) as the Reds scored three runs in the ninth to beat Astros at Cincinnati.

After Wade Miller held the Reds to one run through eight innings, they rallied against the Astros bullpen.

Milwaukee 8, Pittsburgh 5--Jeromy Burnitz hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth at Milwaukee as the Brewers rallied from four runs down for the second consecutive game to beat the Pirates.