National League Game Summary - Washington at New York

(Tuesday, September 25th)

Final Score: Washington 10, New York 9

Flushing, NY (Sports Network) - Tom Glavine suffered a loss for the first time since early July and Washington held off a furious late rally by New York to post a 10-9 win over the Mets at Shea Stadium.

Austin Kearns hit a three-run homer and Tony Batista finished 3-for-5 with a solo blast for the Nationals, who have won the first two of this three- game series. Brian Schneider drove in three runs in the win.

For the playoff-hopeful Mets, it was the second consecutive loss after the club swept the Florida Marlins over the weekend. New York, however, did not lose any ground and maintained its two-game lead atop the NL East after the Philadelphia Phillies lost to Atlanta, 10-6, earlier Tuesday.

"I don't care if you lose by eight runs or one, it's still a loss," said New York catcher Paul Lo Duca. "We battled, but fell one run short and we have to fix it -- quick. It will be tough to sleep on this one."

Glavine (13-7) had been unbeaten in his last 14 straight starts but allowed six runs and nine hits in five innings of work with four strikeouts and one walk.

Jose Reyes hit two home runs while Moises Alou registered three RBI in the loss.

Jason Bergmann (6-5) earned the win after he was charged with three runs on seven hits through 5 2/3 innings with three strikeouts and three walks.

The Mets entered the bottom of the ninth trailing by seven runs but made it very interesting with a six-run explosion.

Facing Washington reliever Jesus Colome, Lo Duca started the rally with a single and Carlos Gomez drew a one-out walk before Reyes clobbered his second homer of the game and 12th of the year over the wall in right field to bring the Mets within 10-6.

"That's what they are capable of -- they can put up seven or eight runs in a hurry," said Nationals manager Manny Acta.

Luis Castillo then singled to left and closer Chad Cordero entered from the Washington bullpen. David Wright greeted him with a single and Carlos Beltran walked to load the bases. Alou then came through with a bases-clearing double and the home crowd roared as the Mets were within a run, but Jon Rauch struck out Carlos Delgado and forced Lo Duca to fly out for his fourth save.

"Both those guys (Delgado and Lo Duca) are quality hitters and can make good contact, so I just tried to make good pitches and (force them) to hit a ball on the ground," said Rauch.

New York's magic number to clinch the division is now four.

"We've had multiple chances to (put the division away) and we haven't done it yet," Lo Duca added.

The Nationals stormed out of the gate and scored four runs in the top of the first courtesy of a pair of home runs. Felipe Lopez led off the game with a single and stole second base before a one-out walk to Ryan Zimmerman. The next batter was Kearns, who drilled his 16th home run of the season over the wall in left field for a 3-0 lead. With two outs, Batista's homer made it a four- run cushion.

After Reyes led off the home first with his 11th home run, the Mets made it 4-2 in the second via Shawn Green's RBI single that scored Alou.

But the visitors answered in the top of the third. Zimmerman doubled and scored on a base hit by Wily Mo Pena and then scored their sixth run on Justin Maxwell's solo homer in the fourth.

Bergmann tossed a 1-2-3 fourth but allowed a run in the bottom of the fifth. Green singled leading off and came around to score when pinch-hitter Ruben Gotay followed with a two-base hit. Castillo's one-out base hit kept the mild rally alive, but Wright grounded into a 5-4-3 double play.

A pair of two-out walks brought the potential tying run to the plate in the home sixth, but Arnie Munoz came out of the Washington bullpen and induced an inning-ending groundout off the bat of Green.

Schneider's two-run single in the seventh, which allowed Zimmerman and Pena to cross the plate, made it 8-3 before an RBI groundout in the top of the eighth and a ninth-inning run-scoring single by Schneider gave the Nats a 10-3 lead.

Game Notes

This marked Reyes' first career multi-homer game at Shea...Alou extended his career-best hitting streak to 29 games. It's the longest hit streak in franchise history and the longest in baseball this season...Green recorded his 2,000th career hit...The Mets grounded into a season-high four double plays...Bergmann is unbeaten (5-0) in his last 10 starts -- his last loss was on June 30 versus Pittsburgh...The Nats outhit the Mets, 16-14...Both teams left seven runners on base...Attendance was 49,244.

source: Baseball.com