PHILADELPHIA — Ryan Howard hit his major league-leading 48th homer, Joe Blanton pitched six effective innings and the Philadelphia Phillies moved closer to clinching the NL East title with an 8-4 victory over the Washington Nationals on Friday night.

The Phillies’ magic number for winning their second straight division championship was reduced to one after the New York Mets lost 6-1 to the Florida Marlins.

Chase Utley had a three-run double and Howard drove in four runs as Philadelphia built a 7-1 lead off Collin Balester (3-7).

The Nationals chipped away against Blanton (4-0), but four relievers combined to toss three scoreless innings.

Marlins 6, Mets 1

NEW YORK — The Mets’ offense fizzled and Mike Pelfrey lost to Florida for the fourth time this season, putting New York’s postseason chances in peril.

Josh Willingham homered and Hanley Ramirez had four hits for the Marlins, who knocked New York out of the playoff race on the final weekend last season.

The Mets fell two games behind first-place Philadelphia, which beat Washington 8-4. They will send ace Johan Santana to the mound Saturday on three days’ rest. New York also fell a game behind Milwaukee in the wild-card race.

Pelfrey (13-11) allowed three runs and eight hits in six innings, falling to 0-4 in five starts against Florida this year.

Brewers 5, Cubs 1

MILWAUKEE — Rickie Weeks hit a three-run homer, Seth McClung pitched four scoreless innings in relief and the Brewers rallied to beat the Cubs for their fifth straight win and the lead in the NL wild-card race.

Weeks, who has been relegated to a bench role but replaced Ray Durham after the sixth, drove reliever Chad Gaudin’s pitch deep to left field, flipping his bat as his shot cleared the wall to score McClung and Mike Cameron.

The win eliminated the Astros even though Houston beat Atlanta.

Astros 5, Braves 4

HOUSTON — Pinch-hitter Darin Erstad hit a game-ending home run in the ninth inning to lift Houston to a win over Atlanta, but the Astros were still eliminated from playoff contention.

Houston entered 3 1/2 games back of the New York Mets and Milwaukee in the NL wild-card chase and was eliminated when the Brewers beat the Cubs.

Cardinals 7, Reds 6

ST. LOUIS — Troy Glaus drove in the winning run with a bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the ninth inning and Albert Pujols homered and had three hits to run his streak to seven straight hits over three games.

Javier Valentin’s sixth career pinch homer, a two-run shot off Ryan Franklin (6-6) with two outs in the ninth, tied it at 6. Reds pinch hitters were 3-for-3 in the ninth while handing the Cardinals their 31st blown save, tied with the Mariners for the most in the majors.

Diamondbacks 6, Rockies 4

PHOENIX — Chad Tracy’s pinch-hit double drove in two runs in the eighth inning gave Arizona a victory over Colorado.

Justin Upton drove in three runs with a homer and a triple for the Diamondbacks.

Pirates 6, Padres 3

SAN DIEGO — Ryan Doumit hit a three-run homer and Freddy Sanchez added a solo shot to help Pittsburgh snap a nine-game road losing streak.

Doumit’s 15th homer to right off reliever Mike Ekstrom (0-2) broke a 1-1 tie in the sixth.

Giants 6, Dodgers 5,     10 innings

SAN FRANCISCO — Bengie Molina was awarded a two-run homer after an instant replay reversal and Dave Roberts singled in the winning run in the 10th inning Friday night, giving the San Francisco Giants a 6-5 victory over the newly crowned NL West champion Los Angeles Dodgers.

Tyler Walker (5-8) pitched the 10th for the win and Roberts drove in Omar Vizquel with a two-out single in the bottom half against Jason Johnson (1-2).

For just the second time since baseball began using instant replay, an on-field call was overturned. Molina’s two-run shot to right tied it at 2 in the bottom of the sixth inning. Pablo Sandoval’s third single of the game in the seventh put San Francisco ahead and pinch-hitter Rich Aurilia added a sacrifice fly in the inning.