Cordero Is Double Trouble for Phillies

Wil Cordero and the Montreal Expos improved their wild-card hopes with an improbable victory.

Cordero hit two two-run doubles and the host Expos rallied from an eight-run deficit and defeated the Philadelphia Phillies, 14-10, Tuesday night.

Montreal trailed, 8-0, after five innings and then 10-4 before scoring seven runs in the seventh, highlighted by Cordero and Jose Vidro’s two-run doubles.

“How exciting was that game?” Vidro said. “We came back -- unbelievable, one of the most exciting games I’ve played since I’ve been in the big leagues.”

The Expos won their third in a row and moved to within two games of Philadelphia and Florida, which lead the National League wild-card race.

Ricky Ledee had his first two-homer game and drove in four runs, and Mike Lieberthal had three hits and two runs batted in for the Phillies, who have lost four in a row and are 1-7 on a season-high 13-game trip.

“It’s devastating, there’s no question about it, but it’s not like there’s two games left,” Manager Larry Bowa said. “We just didn’t get the job done tonight. There’s no excuses.”

Vladimir Guerrero walked with the bases loaded and Cordero hit a two-run double in the eighth to make it 14-10.

“They just kept getting clean hits, getting guys on base,” Ledee said. “It wasn’t like we made errors. You have to be in disbelief. You look at the score, and they score another one, another one, another one -- all of a sudden, they’re on top.”

With runners on first and third in the eighth, Guerrero jumped at the right-field fence for an inning-ending catch on Chase Utley’s drive against Luis Ayala.

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Pittsburgh 4, Florida 3 -- Jason Kendall hit a decisive two-run homer in the seventh inning at Pittsburgh.

The Marlins have lost six of seven but remained in a tie with the Phillies in the wild-card race.

Pat Mahomes, making his first start since Sept. 27 with the Chicago Cubs, held the Marlins hitless until Juan Encarnacion singled leading off the fifth inning.

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Chicago 7, St. Louis 4 -- Mark Prior gave up three hits in eight innings and Randall Simon and Aramis Ramirez hit consecutive homers in a six-run third inning at St. Louis.

Prior (13-5) is 5-0 with a 0.69 earned-run average since coming off the disabled list Aug. 4.

Albert Pujols hit his 35th homer, in the sixth inning, to end an 0-for-13 slump.

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Milwaukee 7, Cincinnati 1 -- Doug Davis gave up four hits at Cincinnati for his first NL victory and the Brewers won their eighth consecutive game.

Geoff Jenkins had a career high-tying four hits, including a two-run homer, helping the Brewers extend their longest winning streak since a nine-game string in 1997.

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San Francisco 3, Colorado 1 -- Jason Schmidt (13-5) gave up four hits in 7 2/3 innings -- only one in the first six -- at Denver for the Giants, who have won six of seven and two of three without Barry Bonds, who has been on bereavement leave since his father, Bobby, died Saturday.

Colorado nearly had its league-record home scoring streak end at 353 games, but got a run in the eighth when right fielder Jose Cruz Jr. was charged with an error for dropping Todd Helton’s fly, allowing Juan Uribe to score from second base.

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New York 6, Atlanta 5 -- Mike Piazza hit a three-run homer at Atlanta in his first game against the Braves this year, and Timo Perez had a two-run double.

Piazza sat out nearly three months because of a strained right groin, including the previous 13 games between the teams. He connected in the first against Shane Reynolds (10-7) for a 3-0 lead.

The Braves got to within a run in the ninth on a pinch-hit homer by Mike Hessman.

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San Diego 5, Arizona 4 -- Phil Nevin and Ryan Klesko hit consecutive run-scoring doubles in the eighth inning and the Padres rallied from a four-run deficit at Phoenix.

Gary Matthews Jr. had a two-run homer in the seventh and Sean Burroughs hit a run-scoring triple in the eighth for the Padres.

The Diamondbacks squandered an opportunity to pull to within half a game of Philadelphia and Florida in the wild-card race.