Phillies Skid Continues

The Philadelphia Phillies didn`t lose this one with any mental miscues or late-inning errors. It was over early.

Steve Trachsel pitched into the eighth inning and Tsuyoshi Shinjo had two RBIs as the New York Mets beat the Phillies 5-3 Tuesday night.

The Phillies, who dropped three games behind first-place Atlanta in the NL East for the first time since Aug. 7, have lost three straight and 14 of 19.

Trachsel (9-11) allowed three runs in 7 2-3 innings to beat the Phillies for the fourth time this season. He is 7-1 with a 2.84 ERA since the All-Star break.

Armando Benitez pitched the ninth for his 36th save in 38 chances. New York has won nine of 12 and 13 of 17.

After going 62-0 in games it led after eight innings, the Phillies allowed five runs in a wild ninth inning to lose 10-7 to the Mets on Monday – letting the winning run score on a double error that began with a routine throw back to the mound.

Phillies starter Omar Daal (12-6) allowed four runs – three earned – and five hits in four innings. Daal is 2-4 in his last eight starts.

The Mets took a 1-0 lead in the first on an RBI double by Edgardo Alfonzo. Joe McEwing reached on an error by third baseman Scott Rolen and scored on Alfonzo`s shot to left-center.

Daal escaped further trouble by fanning Jay Payton and retiring Desi Relaford on a grounder to the mound with the bases loaded. He nearly got out of another bases-loaded jam in the second when Mike Piazza struck out for the second out. But Shinjo, who fell behind in the count 0-2, delivered a two-run single to make it 3-0.

Payton led off the third with his seventh homer for a 4-0 lead. Piazza added an RBI single in the sixth off Nelson Figueroa to make it 5-0. Figueroa had retired the first two hitters before allowing three straight singles.

The Phillies scored three times with two outs in the eighth to cut the deficit to 5-3. Rolen`s RBI single made it 5-1. Travis Lee followed with a two-run double that knocked Trachsel out of the game.

Rick White entered and got Pat Burrell to fly out to end the inning.

Philadelphia`s best chance before that came in the third, but Shinjo nailed Doug Glanville at the plate to end the inning. Glanville singled to start the inning, moved to second on a one-out sacrifice and tried to score on Jimmy Rollins` line-drive single.

Notes:
Phillies RF Bobby Abreu was 1-for-4 with two strikeouts. He`s hitting .171 (12-for-70) with no homers and eight RBIs since Aug. 14. ... A crowd of just 14,020 came out to Veterans Stadium despite the Phillies being in a pennant race. ... The Mets have won six straight series. ... Alfonzo has hit in 10 of 11. He`s batting .355 (16-of-45) with 10 RBIs in that stretch. ... Shinjo is batting .358 (24-for-67) against the Phillies. ... Philadelphia has nine errors in its last three games.

(Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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Author: 6 ABC - Action News