Phillies head to Shea for crucial series with Mets

Sep 14, 2007, 15:26 GMT

- The Philadelphia Phillies will get one last chance to cut into the New York Mets' lead in the National League East, as the clubs begin a three-game weekend set tonight at Shea Stadium.

The Phillies have won five in a row versus the Mets and nine of 15 games against New York this season. They swept a four-game series from New York in Philadelphia from August 27-30.

That sweep got the Phillies within two games of New York's lead in the standings, but the club went on to lose five of its next six games to fall back in the chase. Philadelphia is currently 6 1/2 games off the pace.

Philadelphia comes into this set after splitting four games with the Colorado Rockies. The Phils, who begin a 10-game road trip tonight, salvaged the split in a big way on Thursday.

Chase Utley hit a two-run homer and scored three times in the Phillies' 12-4 victory, while Jayson Werth knocked in three runs. The win was big, as the NL wild card-leading Padres lost to the Dodgers, allowing Philadelphia to get within 1 1/2 games of San Diego.

Starter J.D. Durbin lasted just one-plus innings, allowing three runs on five hits with three walks. The bullpen gave up just one run the rest of the way, however, with Geoff Geary (2-2) picking up the win after tossing three innings of one-hit relief.

The Phillies will try to get Jamie Moyer on track tonight. Moyer, who has an 8.41 earned run average over his last five starts, is coming off a subpar outing on Sunday against the Marlins, although he was just good enough to win. The left-hander allowed five runs and six hits over 5 1/3 innings to improve to 13-11 with a 5.23 ERA on the season.

Moyer has faced the Mets three times this year and most recently beat them on August 29 behind six innings of two-run ball. The 44-year-old is 5-3 with a solid 2.62 ERA in 10 career starts against New York, though that includes a loss to the Mets and their starter for tonight, Tom Glavine, on April 12.

While Moyer has been struggling as of late, Glavine has been on a roll. The left-hander has won six straight decisions and hasn't lost since July 2 at Colorado, a span of 12 starts. He has won back-to-back games, including Saturday's victory over Houston in which he allowed just one run and three hits over seven innings. The win moved Glavine to 13-6 with a 3.95 ERA on the season.

The 41-year-old, who has allowed just two runs over his last three outings, got a no decision against the Phillies on August 28 and is 28-17 with a 3.71 ERA in 63 career starts versus Philadelphia.

New York was idle yesterday after taking two out of three from the Braves, including a 4-3 victory on Wednesday. Shawn Green singled home the eventual game-winning run in the eighth frame of that contest.

Marlon Anderson homered and Jose Reyes went 2-for-4 with an RBI and run scored for the Mets, who have won five of six. Moises Alou had a hit to run his hitting streak to 17 games, matching David Wright for the longest this year by a Met.

John Maine allowed one run on three hits with three walks and five strikeouts over six innings. Guillermo Mota (2-1) got the final out in the eighth for the win, and Billy Wagner tossed a perfect ninth for his 34th save.

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