John Maine took a no-hitter into the eighth inning and Lastings Milledge belted a pair of home runs, as the Mets showed some life with a 13-0 victory over the Florida Marlins, and moved back into a tie atop the National League East. The victory, combined with Philadelphia's 4-2 home loss to Washington, moved the Mets into a tie with one game remaining in the regular season. Tom Glavine will pitch for the Mets Sunday, while Florida goes with Dontrelle Willis. Should the Mets and Phillies finish in a tie atop the division with just one postseason spot available for each team, there would be a one-game playoff in Philadelphia on Monday. The Mets fell into second place in the division on Friday night after their fifth straight loss and looked listless in doing so, but they got a dominating performance from Maine and rapped out 19 hits in a game that also featured a benches-clearing incident. The Mets are also still alive in the wild card hunt, as San Diego lost 4-3 in 11 innings Saturday at Milwaukee. The Mets, Phillies and Rockies are a game back of the Padres for the wild card spot going into Sunday. "We're still breathing, we still have a chance," said Mets manager Willie Randolph. "I feel good about our chances, but we need a little help." Maine (15-10) struck out 14 batters, including seven in a row at one point, and finished with 7 2/3 innings of one-hit ball with a pair of walks to win for the first time in five starts. The Mets have never thrown a no-hitter. "John was amazing," Randolph added. "That's what's been hurting us the past few weeks, pitching. When you get a game like that, it makes it easier. John really stepped up for us. He was on today and we needed it." Florida's lone hit came with two outs in the eighth, as Paul Hoover chopped a 1-2 pitch from Maine up the third-base line for an infield single. The Mets battered Florida starter Chris Seddon (0-2) for five runs on seven hits in just 1 2/3 innings. New York got a pair of two-out hits to take the first-inning lead. After Luis Castillo doubled with one out and advanced to third on a single by David Wright, Carlos Beltran lined out. Moises Alou, though, grounded a single up the middle to score Castillo and Carlos Delgado drove home Wright with a base hit to center. Milledge started the second with a base hit and reached third on a pair of outs, but Castillo singled to center to make it 3-0. Wright then drew a walk and Beltran singled home a run to chase Seddon in favor of Ross Wolf, who gave up another RBI base hit to Alou. New York tacked on three more in the third. Ramon Castro led off with a single and Milledge followed with his sixth homer of the season. Maine then drew a walk, took second on an out and scored on a ground-rule double by Castillo to make it 8-0. The Mets went down quietly in the fourth, but things got ugly in the fifth after Milledge led off the inning with his second homer of the game and apparently did a little too much celebrating for the Marlins. After Maine struck out and Jose Reyes doubled, Castillo was nearly hit by a Harvey Garcia wild pitch that moved Reyes to third. Castillo pointed toward the mound with his bat and the benches emptied, but no punches were thrown, and he eventually drew a walk before the Marlins decided to make another pitching change. While on the mound, Florida catcher Miguel Olivo jawed with Reyes at third base and raced toward third as the benches emptied for a second time. Olivo tried to throw a punch and was ejected. "I just thought he was kidding with me because he is a good friend of mine," said Reyes about the incident with Olivo. "When he went to the mound, he said 'You want to fight,' so I said 'Yes.' I thought he was kidding with me, but he came after me...so that's what happened." After things settled down, Wright singled home Reyes for a 10-0 cushion. Castro homered in the sixth, Delgado singled home another run in the seventh and David Newhan drove home a run with a base hit in the eighth to account for the final margin. Maine was brilliant. After issuing a walk to Dan Uggla with one out in the first, he struck out Jeremy Hermida and Uggla was thrown out trying to steal. His strikeout streak started with the final two batters of the second and ended when Hermida flied to left in the fourth. The only other batter to reach base against Maine before the infield single in the eighth was Uggla, who walked with one out in the seventh. After Hoover's base hit, Maine was lifted and left the field to a standing ovation. "We needed a win today," said Maine. "Pitching, defense and hitting. We were running on all cylinders today. We came out and did what we had to do today." Game Notes Castillo, Wright and Milledge each had three hits for the Mets...Milledge recorded his first career multi-homer game...Maine's 14 strikeouts were the most for a Met since Al Leiter had 15 on August 11, 1999 against the Chicago Cubs.
