Phillies End Mets’ 7-Game Winning Streak

NEW YORK – Ryan Howard hit his NL-leading 45th home run and made a key diving stop as the Philadelphia Phillies ended the New York Mets’ seven-game winning streak with a 4-3 victory Friday night.

Randy Wolf and the Philadelphia bullpen also stopped the Mets’ 11-game winning string at Shea Stadium, their best streak at home since September 1995.

The wild-card hopeful Phillies won minus manager Charlie Manuel, who was ejected in the sixth inning. Carlos Beltran hit his 37th homer, doubled and drove in three runs for the NL East-leading Mets.

Howard drove in three runs, giving him a league-leading 117 RBIs. He had a sacrifice fly in the first inning and hit a two-run homer in the third.

In the bottom of the third, Howard came off the bag at first base to make a diving play on Shawn Green’s hard grounder with runners at the corners.

Wolf (3-0) gave up three runs on five hits over five innings. He made just his sixth start of the season after having Tommy John surgery in July 2005.

Phillies relievers Geoff Geary, Arthur Rhodes and Ryan Madson combined for four scoreless innings. Madson pitched the ninth for his second save.

Brian Bannister (2-1) lost in his first game for the Mets since injuring his hamstring on April 26. He settled down after a rough start and gave up four runs and six hits in six innings.

Bannister was 2-0 with a 2.89 ERA in five starts for the Mets before hurting himself with running the bases at San Francisco. He re-aggravated the injury three weeks later in a rehab start at Triple-A Norfolk and didn’t pitch again until Aug. 5.

The Phillies opened the game with three straight singles by Jimmy Rollins, Shane Victorino and Chase Utley for a 1-0 lead. Howard followed with a sacrifice fly.

In his next at-bat, Howard sent a 3-2 pitch from Bannister to nearly the same spot in right – but a few feet farther – and over the wall for a 4-0 lead. Beltran hit an RBI double in the bottom half.

Beltran got the Mets to within a run in the fifth when he hit a hanging slider from Wolf into the left-field bleachers.

Notes:@ The Phillies won three of four from the Mets last week in Philadelphia. … Needing a starter for Saturday’s game, the Mets will likely call up LHP Oliver Perez from Triple-A Norfolk. Acquired from Pittsburgh in a trade last month, Perez is 2-5 with a 5.79 ERA in Triple-A overall this season.