Close, But No NL East Clinch for Phils

The Phillies (97-51), who have already clinched no worse than the wild card, saw their magic number cut to one for winning their fifth straight NL East title when second-place Atlanta lost to the New York Mets 12-2.

Adron Chambers drove in the go-ahead run with his first major league hit and Tyler Greene added an RBI double in the 11th inning to help St. Louis beat Philadelpha 4-2, keeping the Cardinals' playoff push alive while putting the Phillies' title celebration on hold.

Chambers, batting for the second time in his career since his Sept. 6 callup, lined a single to right off Michael Schwimmer (1-1) to score Rafael Furcal and give St. Louis a 3-2 lead. Greene
followed with a double off the top of the wall in left to plate Pujols and put the Cardinals up two runs. Chambers was tagged out at the plate trying to score from first.

The Cardinals were leading 2-1 with two outs in the ninth when Ruiz drove in the tying run with a drive to right field. Corey Patterson, a defensive replacement, got to the ball in time but it went in and out of his glove just inside the line in deep right to allow pinch-runner Michael Martinez to score. The play was first ruled a hit before being changed to an error.

Martinez was running for Ryan Howard, who was not in the starting lineup for the fourth time in nine days with a nagging ankle injury, but came on with two outs in the ninth and doubled to right, just beating Patterson's throw with a headfirst slide. It was the second straight big pinch-hit for
Howard, who drove in the winning run in Thursday night's 2-1, 10-inning victory over Florida.

Phillies starter Vance Worley pitched six solid innings, allowing one run on six hits while striking out five and walking three. The NL Rookie of the Year candidate was coming off Sunday's 3-2 loss at Milwaukee that snapped a streak of 14 games in a row won by the Phillies in his starts. His record remained at 11-2 while his ERA dropped slightly to 2.85, from 2.92 entering the game.

The Cards took a 1-0 lead in the second when Worley walked in a run, but the right-hander escaped further trouble when he got Allen Craig to ground out with the bases loaded for the final out.

John Mayberry Jr., starting in place of Howard, hit an RBI double in the bottom of the frame to tie it at 1, but the Phillies also stranded the bases loaded when Jimmy Rollins popped out to
second.

Philadelphia remained five wins shy of setting a single-season franchise record for victories.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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