Aaron Heilman

Josh Willingham drove in a career-high five runs and the visiting Florida Marlins made three great defensive plays to stifle the New York Mets in a 5-2 victory last night. Ricky Nolasco (1-0) came off the disabled list to allow one run and six hits in five innings for the Marlins. He was 0-3 with a 19.73 ERA in four previous appearances against New York. Willingham tripled with the bases loaded in the first inning and hit a two-run homer off Aaron Heilman in the eighth after the Mets pulled within one. Willingham narrowly missed two more homers, flying out to the warning track in center twice.

Johan Santana's shortest outing of the season lasted long enough to end his frustrating losing streak. Santana tossed five effective innings before his start was cut short by a rain delay, and the New York Mets beat the punchless San Francisco Giants, 5-0, last night for their fifth straight win. Ramon Castro backed Santana with a three-run homer, and resurgent Carlos Delgado had three more hits on a muggy night at Shea Stadium. Delgado is batting .429 (15-for-35) in nine games this month.

Phil Nevin gave San Diego a superb start to a key road trip. Nevin homered, doubled and drove in five runs and the visiting Padres built a big lead for Jake Peavy in a 9-4 win over the New York Mets last night. Coming off a 2-4 homestand, the Padres opened a 10-game visit to Shea Stadium, Montreal and St. Louis hoping to improve their wild-card position. "It was a long trip coming in from San Diego," manager Bruce Bochy said. "They came out swinging the bats well. We were jump-started there.

Out of baseball last year, righthander David Cone will attempt a comeback with the New York Mets. He signed a minor-league contract yesterday. Cone, 40, last pitched in 2001, going 9-7 with a 4.31 earned run average in 25 starts for Boston. Cone worked as an analyst for the New York Yankees' YES network last season and had been expected to do so again. "My gut feeling is that I'll probably retire at this point," Cone said in late January while visiting the Yankees' minor-league complex in Tampa, Fla. But after a lot of lobbying by Mets lefthander Al Leiter - and the possibility of winning a spot as the No. 5 starter - Cone chose to give it a shot.

Rookie Dontrelle Willis won his seventh straight start and the Florida Marlins took advantage of four errors and three wild pitches to beat the host New York Mets, 6-1, last night. Willis defeated the Mets for the second time in 10 days. On June 16, he pitched a one-hitter against them in a 1-0 win at Miami. The hard-throwing lefty with the high leg kick gave up one run and nine hits in seven innings. He struck out seven and walked two. "I didn't think he had his best stuff and he didn't [think so]

LAS VEGAS - They don't keep standings for the offseason. That's probably just as well for the Phillies. In one dizzying day yesterday, their National League East archrivals, the New York Mets, finalized the signing of closer Francisco Rodriguez to a 3-year, $37 million free-agent contract, then followed that up with a three-team blockbuster early this morning that added former Mariners closer J.J. Putz as a setup man. K-Rod set a major league record...

John Maine's no-hit bid ended like every other one for the New York Mets - with a hit. Miguel Cabrera's sharp single to start the seventh inning spoiled Maine's attempt to become the first Mets pitcher to throw a no-hitter, and they settled for a 9-2 victory last night over the host Florida Marlins. The Mets scored four times before Dontrelle Willis retired a batter, and Maine (2-0) allowed only two hits and two runs in seven innings. Maine said he never thought about a no-hitter.

The New York Mets bunted over runners. They took the extra base. Their bullpen protected a lead. And, for the first time in a week, they won a game. David Wright's three RBI, Moises Alou's three hits and Mike Pelfrey's good-enough start helped the Mets beat host Washington last night, 8-4, ending a five-game losing streak that cut their lead in the NL East to 1 1/2 games. "It's a big win for us. It's a win when we needed one," said Wright. "It seemed like everything clicked for us. " Pelfrey (3-7)

Shawn Green hit a tiebreaking single in the eighth inning last night and the New York Mets strengthened their hold on first place in the NL East, beating the visiting Atlanta Braves, 4-3, last night. Super sub Marlon Anderson homered off John Smoltz, and John Maine stymied Atlanta again for six innings to help the Mets win for the 10th time in 12 games. They padded their division lead to seven games over thesecond-place Phillies, who were routed by Colorado. The Mets get their final day off of the regular season today before the Phillies arrive at Shea Stadium for a three-game series beginning tomorrow night.

Adrian Gonzalez homered in the 10th inning and the visiting San Diego Padres outlasted the New York Mets, 9-8, last night in a wild game that included blown saves by Billy Wagner and Trevor Hoffman. The Padres took two of three from the NL East leaders and increased their wild-card lead to two games over the Phillies. Wagner and Hoffman, two of baseball's best closers, both struggled all series. Wagner blew one save chance and gave up the go-ahead run in the ninth inning Tuesday before New York rallied to win. Hoffman blew two saves, sandwiched around a successful conversion Wednesday night.

Well, the Phillies have welcomed into the fold a former foe from Queens. But good luck batting him fifth. Although the front office continues to explore its options with regard to Mets slugger Carlos Beltran and other potential offensive upgrades, the only hard news to come out of yesterday was the signing of former New York reliever Aaron Heilman to a minor league contract. The 32-year-old righthander was recently released by the Arizona Diamondbacks after he posted a 6.88 ERA in 32 appearances.

The Pirates won 57 games last season and have won 51 already this year. In an even bigger upset, fans in Pittsburgh have taken notice. (Thank you, NFL lockout.) "Before, they'd come to the games and they'd be rocking Steelers shirts and Penguins hats," closer Joel Hanrahan told ESPN.com. "Now you come to the games and it's all Pirates stuff. They've got Andrew McCutchen shirts and Neil Walker jerseys everywhere. "   Trade talk ESPN's Jerry Crasnick reported that the Phillies have inquired about Florida closer Leo Nunez, who has 27 saves (three blown)

I WORK for a media company in Center City. A lifelong New Yorker, I was hired with the plan that I could work mostly from my home just outside New York City. But I also work several days a month here, making me a part-time Philadelphian. With that comes the baggage I bring along as a passionate Mets, Jets, Rangers and Knicks fan. That means I can't help but loathe, and often viciously root against, most Philadelphia teams, including the Phils, Flyers and Sixers. I've jeered the Flyers and Sixers for years, though the Eagles don't really bother me since I'm neutral about the Giants.

Say this for the Mets in their first four games against the Phillies this season: The bullpen imploded only once. When New York reliever Sean Green walked Shane Victorino with the bases loaded in the 10th inning May 2, his team lost in a manner common to last season, when Mets relievers blew an astonishing 29 saves, and the Phillies won the National League East by three games. Dig this factoid: Had all Mets games ended after eight innings last year, New York would have won the division by 12 games.

The Arena Football League yesterday voted not to suspend play in 2009, ended a week of speculation about the league's imminent demise. The league's board of directors met via a conference call yesterday. The AFL has not released the 2009 schedule, and it's still possible there could be big changes to the indoor league, which began play in 1987. On Monday the league delayed the start of free agency and a dispersal draft to allocate players from the defunct New Orleans VooDoo.

LAS VEGAS - They don't keep standings for the offseason. That's probably just as well for the Phillies. In one dizzying day yesterday, their National League East archrivals, the New York Mets, finalized the signing of closer Francisco Rodriguez to a 3-year, $37 million free-agent contract, then followed that up with a three-team blockbuster early this morning that added former Mariners closer J.J. Putz as a setup man. K-Rod set a major league record...

Another late lead and another bullpen meltdown for the New York Mets. The Atlanta Braves rallied for four runs in the eighth inning and a 7-6 win yesterday that dropped the Mets to 1 1/2 games behind the Phillies, and cut their lead in the wild-card race to 1 1/2 games over Milwaukee. Down 4-3, Atlanta struck in the eighth against Scott Schoeneweis (2-5) and three other Mets relievers. It was the latest collapse for a beleaguered bullpen that has a league-high 16 blown saves since the All-Star break.

David Wright hit a two-run homer and tied a career high with four hits, helping the New York Mets put away visiting Washington last night, 13-10, after blowing a six-run lead. Carlos Delgado, whose streak of multihomer games ended at two, hit a go-ahead sacrifice fly in the seventh inning and Jose Reyes swiped a bag to became the Mets career leader for steals. The NL East-leading Mets swept the two-game series against the Nationals and moved 3 1/2 games ahead of the Phillies.

Mike Pelfrey pitched seven shutout innings last night to lead the New York Mets to their fourth straight victory, a 2-1 win over host Pittsburgh. Jose Reyes and Argenis Reyes had two hits each for the first-place Mets. Jack Wilson homered off reliever Duaner Sanchez and Adam LaRoche had three hits for Pittsburgh, which has lost three of four and dropped a season-low 12 games below .500. Pelfrey (11-8), who had a 5.83 ERA in five starts over the past month, was stellar in his first career start against Pittsburgh.

Oliver Perez pitched two-hit ball for 7 innings, David Wright and Carlos Delgado homered and the New York Mets took the first game of a three-game series against division rival Florida, 3-0, last night. Wright followed his ninth-inning, game-winning homer of Thursday with a two-run shot in the first off Ricky Nolasco (11-7), helping the Mets win consecutive games for the first time since taking three in a row July 23-25. They moved a half-game ahead of Florida for second in the NL East, after beginning the night two games behind the division-leading Phillies.