Mets Continue September Fall

The New York Mets have been down this road before: After staying in contention for more than 150 games, a late-season sputter has the Mets’ playoff hopes in limbo.

And Manager Bobby Valentine made it clear that if the Mets’ five-game losing streak turns into a second consecutive late-season collapse, he should be fired.

“I shouldn’t come back next year if we don’t go to the playoffs,” Valentine said Saturday at Philadelphia after the Mets continued their amazin’ free fall with a 4-2 loss to the Phillies.

The Mets fell into a tie with Cincinnati for the NL wild card with the Reds’ 6-1 victory over St. Louis. Both teams have seven games remaining. The Mets also fell to six games behind first place Atlanta in the NL East.

With five games remaining last season, New York needed only one victory to force a playoff for the NL wild card. They lost all five, including three against the Braves at Turner Field.

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Cincinnati 6, St. Louis 1--Greg Vaughn matched Cincinnati’s one-month homer record by hitting his 14th in September, a two-run shot that powered the Reds to a victory over the Cardinals at Cincinnati.

The Reds once again held Mark McGwire in check as he went 0 for 4 to remain stuck at 59 homers.

Atlanta 5, Montreal 3--Andruw Jones and Ozzie Guillen each had two runs batted in at Montreal to lead the Braves to their sixth consecutive victory.

Jones, three for four with a double, had RBI singles in the second and fourth off Javier Vazquez (8-8). Guillen drove in the go-ahead runs with a two-run single in the sixth off Vazquez. Atlanta’s magic number to clinch its eighth consecutive division title dropped to two.

Arizona 7, San Francisco 3--Tony Womack’s single broke a tie in a four-run ninth inning to give the Diamondbacks a victory at San Francisco.

The Diamondbacks (94-60), who clinched the National League West division title Friday night, kept alive their hopes of a 100-victory season with their fourth consecutive victory.

Milwaukee 3, Houston 2--Mark Loretta and Brian Banks drove in runs and Scott Karl won his third consecutive game as the Brewers defeated the Astros at Milwaukee, knocking the Astros to only 1 1/2 games ahead of Cincinnati in the NL Central.

Houston’s Shane Reynolds gave up three runs and eight hits in six innings to take the loss.

Chicago 3, Pittsburgh 1--Jon Lieber pitched a three-hitter with a career-high 11 strikeouts for his first victory in 2 1/2 months, and Jose Nieves, not Sammy Sosa, provided the power as the Cubs defeated the Pirates at Chicago.

While Sosa was 0 for 3, Nieves hit a three-run blast off Francisco Cordova (8-9) in the fifth for the Cubs’ only runs.

Florida 8, Colorado 2--Mike Lowell drove in two runs and Ryan Dempster pitched seven strong innings as the Marlins defeated the Rockies at Miami.