Met's three-run homer sinks Phillies

NEW YORK - It was a day of individual milestones overshadowed by a familiar conclusion for the Phillies, one delivered this time by a sub-.200-hitting catcher.

Anthony Recker's towering three-run homer to left field in the sixth inning propelled the New York Mets to a 6-5 win Sunday at Citi Field.

Thus the season or career milestones reached by A.J. Burnett, Ben Revere, and Jimmy Rollins were marred by another day of failing to deliver in the clutch. The Phillies left 10 runners on base.

"We had some missed opportunities on the offensive side of things," manager Ryne Sandberg said.

Indeed.

Burnett, who allowed five earned runs in six innings, struck out eight and now has 2,345 Ks for his career, moving him past Early Wynn (2,339) for 45th on the all-time list.

Revere stole his 40th base in the fifth inning. He became the 12th player in team history to steal 40 in a year and first since Rollins swiped 47 in 2008.

Rollins' RBI single in the seventh was his second base hit of the day and got the Phillies within 5-3. That tied Richie Ashburn's franchise record of 657 multihit games. Earlier this year the 35-year-old Rollins became the Phillies' all-time hits leader.

Rollins is not allowing the miserable season to lessen his appreciation of what it has taken to achieve these records.

"No," he said. "We could be on our way to winning 100 games and my reaction would be exactly the same. Those are things that if you are around long enough and are productive, I have said over and over again, eventually some cool things will happen."

The Phillies took a 1-0 lead on Ryan Howard's RBI double to right field in the fourth inning against Dillon Gee. Howard knocked in Rollins, who legged out an infield hit and advanced to second on a groundout.

After Howard's double, Grady Sizemore walked and Domonic Brown looped a single to left field to load the bases with one out. But Wil Nieves hit into a double play.

The Mets scored twice in the fifth, getting a two-out RBI double by Matt den Dekker and David Wright's run-scoring single to center.

Howard tied the score in the sixth with a solo home run to right, his 20th of the season and seventh against Gee. It was Howard's first game with two extra-base hits since July 10 and just his third all season.

Recker, a recent Phillies killer, broke the tie with his three-run shot in the sixth. It was Recker's first home run since Aug. 11, when he took Phillies righthander Justin De Fratus deep for a three-run shot in a 5-3 Mets win at Citizens Bank Park. He is batting .187.

"That hanging deuce there in the sixth was not a good pitch, not in that situation," Burnett said.

Brown greeted reliever Jeurys Familia with a homer to left in the eighth, cutting the Phillies' deficit to 5-4, for his career-best fourth hit of the game.

In the bottom of the inning, Kirk Nieuwenhuis hit a one-out double against De Fratus, stole third, and scored on a single up the middle against a drawn-in infield by Dilson Herrera. That was the eventual difference.

Rollins began the ninth with a single against righthander Jenrry Mejia, and Chase Utley was hit by a pitch. That brought up Howard, who hit into a 4-6-3 double play, right into the Mets' shift. Sizemore singled, driving in the fifth run, but Brown ended the game by grounding out to short.

Despite the loss, the Phillies finished August 14-13, their first winning full month of the season.

Even an optimist would have trouble spinning that as a big deal.