J.J. Putz, who blew a one-run lead in a loss to Florida on Wednesday, pitched a scoreless eighth. Francisco Rodriguez finished for his fifth save in as many chances.
Chase Utley hit his eight homer of the season for the Phillies, who got another poor outing from a starter. Chan Ho Park (0-1) gave up seven runs and eight hits, walking six in 4 2-3 innings.
These teams have provided interesting down-to-the-wire races in the NL East the last two seasons. Aided by New York's September collapses, the Phillies have captured consecutive division titles and won the World Series last year. The Mets blew a seven-game lead with 17 games to play in 2007. They lost a 3½-game lead with 17 remaining last season.
Though it's early, the Mets are the ones chasing the Phillies and the first-place Marlins. New York (10-12) had lost seven of 10 coming in. Philadelphia (11-10) has dropped two straight after winning five in a row.
The Mets jumped on Park early, taking a 5-0 lead in the third inning. Park, who won a four-man competition for the fifth starter's job in spring training, could be in danger of going back to the bullpen. He has an 8.57 ERA in five appearances, including four starts.
After Alex Cora walked in the first, Murphy hit a high drive that landed in the first row of the right-field stands. Park walked Carlos Beltran and David Wright after the homer and fell behind Ryan Church 3-0, before retiring him on a double-play grounder to end the inning.
The Mets added a pair of runs in the second on sacrifice flies.
Fernando Tatis singled to start the inning and Omir Santos followed with a double. Tatis scored on Pelfrey's fly to deep left and Santos came in on Jose Reyes' fly to center.
Santos drove in another run with a sac fly in the third to make it 5-0. But the Phillies got three runs back in the bottom half.
Raul Ibanez delivered a broken-bat, two-run single with two outs. Pedro Feliz followed with an RBI single to right to cut it to 5-3.
Beltran led off the fifth with a double, extending his hitting streak to 13 games. Wright singled him in to give the Mets a 6-3 lead. Pelfrey greeted reliever Chad Durbin with a two-out, RBI single that made it 7-3.
Utley hit a solo shot off Pedro Feliciano in the seventh.
Notes: Phillies ace Cole Hamels will test his injured left ankle in a bullpen session on Saturday. He was originally supposed to throw on Friday. Closer Brad Lidge threw before the game and said he'd be ready to pitch Saturday. Lidge hasn't appeared in a game since last Saturday because of inflammation in his right knee. ... Mets 1B Carlos Delgado (hip) and 2B Luis Castillo (back spasm) sat out. ... The Phillies' club-record 12-game errorless streak ended when 2B Utley mishandled Church's grounder in the seventh. Utley ranged far to his right, but the ball skipped under his glove.
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