Phillies Fall Out of 1st Place

The Giants knocked the Philadelphia Phillies out of first place in the NL East with a 6-2 victory Tuesday night.

Just like Halladay a night earlier, Jamie Moyer couldn't slow down San Francisco's suddenly hot bats. The Phillies fell a half-game back of the New York Mets, out of at least a share of the division lead for the first time this year with their second straight series loss.

"We lost. There's nothing to be happy about,'' Moyer said. "We need to pay attention to what we're doing ourselves. We have to look at the here and look at the now. It's a long season but every game counts.''

A day after agreeing to a $125 million, five-year contract extension, Ryan Howard was thrown out in the second on a would-be double when he let up going into the bag. The slugger slowed down after hitting a bouncer into the corner in right, thinking he had plenty of time. But Nate Schierholtz scooped up the ball after it came off the wall and fired to second and Renteria made a sneaky tag on the unexpecting Howard, who was disgusted. Howard -- who went hitless Monday -- singled again in the fourth inning and stayed put at first.

"It was just a mental mistake,'' Howard said. "I thought I had a little more time than I did. I probably should have slid anyway just to make sure. Any time you lose a game it's disappointing, but you try to weather the storm. It's baseball and you'll have hotstreaks and cold streaks. When things aren't going the way you want them to go you just have to keep playing.''

Schierholtz, who also made a diving catch in the first, did it again in the ninth when Utley tried to stretch a single into a double. Brandon Medders then struck out Howard and Jayson Werth on called third strikes.

Werth followed Howard's second-inning hit with a double, stole third and scored on Raul Ibanez's sacrifice fly to give the Phillies a 1-0 lead. But that was it for Philadelphia until pinch-hitter Ben Francisco's RBI single in the eighth.

Moyer (2-2) lost for only the seventh time in his last 32 road starts. The 47-year-old lefty was tagged for a season-high 10 hits and four runs in six innings and fell to 0-3 lifetime at AT&T Park.

San Francisco has won four of five following a four-game losing streak. Wednesday afternoon's series finale is another intriguing pitching matchup: two-time reigning NL Cy Young Award winner and unbeaten righty Tim Lincecum vs. Cole Hamels.

Lincecum has won each of his first four starts.

Phillies manager Charlie Manuel knows his team better come ready to play.

"If you drop your guard, all of a sudden you hit rock bottom,'' Manuel said. "You have to stay with this game every day. I always want to be in first place. They outplayed us. They outhit us, they outhustled us, they scored more runs, that's what I have to say about that. I guess they outpitched us, too.''