THE BUZZ in PHILLY 

The Phillies came into tonight’s game 2 games back of the NL East-leading Mets and trailed the Padres by 1 in the wild card.

The Mets’ magic number is four and they sprinted out to an early 5-0 lead over the Nationals after a nearly miraculous comeback in the 9th inning last night.

The Phillies scored early themselves and took a 4-2 lead into the bottom of the 7th inning behind a strong pitching effort by Kyle Lohse.

Lohse was scheduled to lead-off the 7th and was lifted for pinch-hitter Shane Victorino, who homered into the upper-deck in right field to give the tired bullpen an insurance run. The cheers got even louder when, later in the inning, the out-of-town scoreboard was changed to read: Nationals – 7, Mets – 6.

Tom Gordon entered the game and gave up a lead-off walk, but then got the next two batters out before being lifted for lefty JC Romero to face switch-hitting Chipper Jones (1-5 lifetime against Romero). Romero struck out the league’s leading hitter to end the inning. Imagine if he had pitched the 6th last night!

Brett Myers came in and got a 1-2-3 save in the 9th.

Stars of the game: Jimmy Rollins - 3 hits, Kyle Lohse – 7 strong innings, Greg Dobbs – game-winning RBI

The Mets blew a big lead to get swept by the Nats and the Padres sent Barry Bonds off without a fond farewell, beating the Giants, 11-3.

The Phillies head into their series final against the Braves one game back in the NL East race and the wild card (tied with Colorado).

The Mets host the Cardinals, the Padres head to Milwaukee and the Rockies play in Los Angeles.

It doesn’t get any better than this. Well, a better April would mean we’d be resting our starters and planning playoff parties, instead of pacing every night watching our team and the sports ticker. But I guess we can’t complain.

Jon Buzby is a nationally-syndicated columnist who can be reached through his website at www.jonbuzby.com.