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 Mark Reynolds drove in a career-high five RBIs and the Diamondbacks held on for an 8-7 win over the Padres on Thursday night. Arizona, which trailed San Diego by one percentage point coming into the game, held on after taking an 8-0 lead in the seventh to avoid the four-game sweep and move back one game ahead.
"It's huge," Reynolds said. "We came in here today and didn't really think about the past three days. We knew we were still tied for first and nobody thought we would be in this position."
Reynolds hit a two-run homer an estimated 451 feet into the second deck in left field off Chris Young (9-5) in the second inning. Reynolds, who had three hits, then capped a four-run fifth inning with a three-run double off Cla Meredith.
"That was an unbelievable game for (Reynolds)," Melvin said. "He had the at-bat of the game against Meredith."
Chase Utley hit an RBI single off Billy Wagner in the ninth inning to help the Phillies rally for an 11-10 victory and finish a three-game sweep of the first-place Mets in one of the wildest games of the season. Philadelphia moved within two games of New York in the NL East and San Diego for the wild card.
And in the Central, the Chicago Cubs held off Milwaukee 5-4 to increase their lead to 2 1/2 games over the second-place Brewers.
In only other NL games Thursday, Houston beat St. Louis 2-1 and Cincinnati edged Pittsburgh 5-4.
At San Diego, Doug Davis (12-11) allowed three runs and four hits over 6 2-3 innings to improve to 7-1 in 10 starts since the All-Star break. He struck out seven and walked two as the Diamondbacks won for the ninth time in his 10 second-half starts.
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Jose Valverde gave up a solo homer to Milton Bradley in the ninth before finishing up for his major league-leading 41st save.
"That was a nail-bitter but we came through and won the game," Davis said.
The Diamondbacks scored a pair of runs in the seventh inning on consecutive doubles by Tony Clark, Stephen Drew and Chris Snyder for an 8-0 lead.
Davis allowed only two runners to reach second base through 6 2-3 innings. He gave up an RBI single to Geoff Blum in the seventh, and Brian Giles added a two-run double off reliever Juan Cruz. The Padres scored three more in the eighth to pull to 8-6. Kouzmanoff and Josh Bard had consecutive run-scoring singles, and Stansberry's added an RBI infield single.
At Philadelphia, Pat Burrell homered twice, Ryan Howard and Aaron Rowand also connected, and the Phillies wasted leads of 5-0 and 8-5 before falling behind 10-8 in the eighth. That's when the Mets called on the struggling Wagner, who hadn't pitched since last Friday after experiencing a tired arm.
Looking for his first six-out save in eight years, Wagner (2-2) gave up Burrell's solo shot in the eighth and pinch-hitter Tadahito Iguchi's tying single in the ninth.
[Associated Press]
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