Delgado ends power slump to lead Mets

He belted two homers and drove in five runs in a 7-2 win over the Marlins.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

MIAMI — Carlos Delgado ended a long power drought with two home runs and five RBIs, giving John Maine plenty of support and leading the New York Mets past the Florida Marlins 7-2 on Saturday night.

Delgado hit his first home run in 47 at-bats in the third inning, added a three-run shot in the fifth for his first multi-homer game since Aug. 22 and scored three times to help New York move a season-high 31⁄2 games ahead of Atlanta in the NL East.

Endy Chavez had three hits and David Wright scored twice for the Mets, while Maine (6-2) — who took a no-hitter into the seventh inning at Florida on April 18 — allowed two runs and matched a career-high with eight strikeouts in six innings for his first win in four starts.

Alfredo Amezaga and Miguel Olivo each had two hits and an RBI for Florida, which lost to the Mets at home for the sixth straight time.

Delgado was batting .209 when Mets manager Willie Randolph dropped him from the cleanup spot before Wednesday’s game in Atlanta, but has gone 8-for-16 since to raise that average to .235 — with five hits in the No. 5 spot in the first two games of this series.

Cubs 4, Dodgers 2

LOS ANGELES — Aramis Ramirez and Mark DeRosa hit back-to-back home runs and reliever Will Ohman struck out pinch-hitter Jeff Kent with the bases-loaded in the eighth inning.

Carlos Zambrano (5-4) gave up two runs and eight hits in 72⁄3 innings, struck out a season-high eight and walked one in his second-best start of the season. He allowed one run in eight innings in a 10-1 victory over the Mets on May 15.

Zambrano gave up his second run in the eighth, a two-out RBI single by Nomar Garciaparra that cut the Cubs’ lead to 4-2.

The right-hander walked Russell Martin to load the bases before giving way to Ohman, who got Kent on a called third strike.

Phillies 6, Braves 4

ATLANTA — Chase Utley drove in three runs, Shane Victorino had three hits and Philadelphia moved above .500 for the first time this season.

The Phillies (25-24) have won the first two games of the three-game series and are three games behind the second-place Braves in the NL East.

Atlanta suffered its ninth loss in 13 games as Buddy Carlyle (0-1), called up from Triple-A Richmond for the start, gave up five runs in four innings.