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Castillo, Wright help Mets snap five-game skid

Sep 20, 2007 - 4:09 AM WASHINGTON (Ticker) -- Luis Castillo and David Wright helped the slumping New York Mets avoid further embarrassment.

Castillo hit a go-ahead triple in the fifth and Wright drove in three runs as the Mets snapped a season-high five-game losing streak with an 8-4 victory over the Washington Nationals on Wednesday.

With the game tied at 2-2 in the fifth and Jose Reyes on first, Castillo laced a triple to left-center field off Washington starter Matt Chico (5-9). Wright followed with a sacrifice fly to center that plated Castillo for a 4-2 lead.

"I'm happy to help the team win," Castillo said through an interpreter. "We have to keep it up."

"It's a big win for us," Wright said. "A win when we needed one. Everything was clicking tonight. (Mike) Pelfrey had the look in his eye that he wanted to be the one for us. (Jorge) Sosa came in and did his job. We are a good situational-hitting team, and those were the keys to our success."

Reyes had two hits and scored a pair of runs for New York (84-67), which moved 2 1/2 games ahead of the Philadelphia Phillies (82-70) in the National League East Division. Philadelphia fell to St. Louis, 2-1, in 10 innings.

"It always feels good to win," Met manager Willie Randolph said. "I hope we can go to Miami and play well down there."

After Washington cut the deficit to 4-3 on an RBI groundout by Austin Kearns, New York answered with a run in the sixth and three more in the seventh.

In the sixth, Moises Alou doubled down the left field line off Chico and was a sacrificed to third. Paul Lo Duca then drove in Alou with a sacrifice fly to center to make it 5-3.

New York broke open the game an inning later as pinch hitter Shawn Green led off with a single and was sacrificed to second.

Green scored as first baseman Robert Fick booted a grounder, allowing Castillo to reach. Wright then drove in his third run of the game with a double to right and scored on Alou's single, capping the scoring.

Pelfrey (3-7) battled through five-plus innings, allowing three runs and nine hits before leaving with a 5-3 lead and runners on the corners. Sosa got out of the jam and threw two scoreless innings.

"You have to tip your hat to them," Pelfrey said. "They hit the ball, but I was able to get out of most of the jams. I just tried to pitch well and put us in a position to win."

"It was a good outing for him," Randolph said. "He's improving, and that's good to see."

The Mets took a 1-0 lead on a sacrifice fly by Lo Duca in the second. But the Nationals grabbed a 2-1 advantage in their half of the frame thanks to an RBI groundout by rookie Jesus Flores and a run-scoring single by Chico.

New York tied the game at 2-2 as Reyes hit ball to left field that got stuck in the padding at the top of the fence. It was ruled a ground-rule double, and Wright delivered an RBI single later in the frame.

Alou extended his hitting streak to a career-best 23 games with a second-inning single.

"It doesn't matter," Alou said of the streak. "I just want to win games."

"He's hot," Randolph said. "He's carrying us in a lot of ways."

Meanwhile, Chico - who is winless in his last seven starts - allowed five runs and seven hits in 5 1/3 innings with three strikeouts and one walk.

"I'm disappointed in my performance," Chico said. "I didn't have my best stuff tonight."

Felipe Lopez had three hits for Washington, which had won eight of its previous 10 here.

"We played them hard," Nationals manager Manny Acta said. "I happy that we were able to take two out of three games."