NEW YORK — Jerry Manuel was curious to see how his New York Mets would respond after a heartbreaking loss to Philadelphia.

They answered with two big wins.

Carlos Delgado hit a tiebreaking, two-run double in the eighth inning and Oliver Perez stifled the Phillies again, helping the Mets earn a 3-1 victory yesterday that gave them sole possession of first place in the NL East.

The Mets took two of three in the series after blowing a three-run lead in the ninth inning of the opener, putting them alone in first place for the first time since April 19.

"I'm very proud of the way this team bounced back after that game the other night," said Manuel, who has managed New York to a 21-12 record since Willie Randolph was fired last month. "We've been resilient for a long period of time."

New York got another dominant outing from Perez, who had a season-high 12 strikeouts and allowed one run in 7 2/3 innings. The left-hander is 1-0 with a 0.35 ERA in 26 innings against Philadelphia this year and has a 1.35 ERA over his last four starts overall.

"Just trying to make pitches and the more important (thing), I always say, trying to (keep) my team in the game," Perez said.

Aaron Heilman (1-3) replaced Perez and got Jayson Werth to fly out with the bases loaded to end the eighth. Billy Wagner, who missed the series opener with a sore left shoulder, got three outs for his second save in two days and 26th of the season.

Perez ran his scoreless streak against Philadelphia to 24 1/3 innings before Werth led off the seventh with a mammoth drive to center that hit the top tier of a camera tower. His 13th homer of the season tied it at 1.

BREWERS 4, CARDINaLS 1: Ryan Braun had four hits for a second straight game, including a two-run homer in the ninth, helping visiting Milwaukee complete a three-game sweep of St. Louis for its eighth straight victory.

Giants 1, Nationals 0: Matt Cain (6-8) pitched a four-hitter to outduel Tim Redding (7-5), who allowed a run and seven hits in eight-plus innings, and Dave Roberts singled home a run in the eighth as San Francisco beat Washington to earn its first three-game home sweep of the season.

Pirates 9, Padres 1: Yoslan Herrera (1-1) scattered six hits over six shutout innings for his first major league win, Jason Bay and Xavier Nady hit back-to-back homers in the fourth, and Nate McLouth homered and had three RBIs to lead host Pittsburgh past San Diego for its fourth straight victory.

Cubs 6, Marlins 3: Carlos Zambrano (11-4) gave up two runs and five hits over seven innings, Henry Blanco and Ronny Cedeno homered and Aramis Ramirez had a two-run double as Chicago snapped a 10-game losing streak to Florida and improved to 38-12 at Wrigley Field.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

BLUE JAYS BEAT O'S TWICE: Roy Halladay (12-7) allowed a run and seven hits over seven innings and Gregg Zaun snapped an 0-for-19 skid with a two-run single to lead visiting Toronto to a 7-1 victory over Baltimore. In a completion of Wednesday's game suspended in the sixth by rain, three relievers allowed two hits over the final four innings to wrap up a 5-1 win.

Royals 4, Rays 2: Gil Meche (8-9) pitched seven scoreless innings, despite needing 26 minutes and 31 pitches to get out of a scoreless first, and John Buck drove in two runs, helping Kansas City hold off Tampa Bay to extend the AL East leaders' road losing streak to seven games.