A day after rallying to beat Pedro Martinez, the Philadelphia Phillies took advantage Tom Glavine’s defense and headed out of New York with the NL wild-card lead.

David Bell blooped a two-run single in the first following Glavine’s misplay of a potential inning-ending grounder, backing a strong outing by Jon Lieber and leading the Phillies over the Mets 3-1 yesterday.

Ryan Howard boosted the Phillies’ margin with a 430-foot homer in the ninth off Braden Looper.

Billy Wagner completed the four-hitter by converting his 23rd straight save chance since May 24.

Philadelphia, which began Wednesday with a half-game ahead in the wildcard race, won two straight after wasting a lead in the opener of the three-game series. The Phillies headed to Washington to complete their 12-game trip, then return to Philadelphia for a homestand against wild-card rivals Houston and Florida, and NL East-leading Atlanta.

“Everybody’s playing each other right now,” Howard said. “People are knocking heads. Two out of three will be good anywhere you go.”

The Mets dropped 2 1/2 games behind the Phillies and left for a trip to Florida, Atlanta, and St. Louis.

“I don’t know what the heck I’m doing, but overall, everybody’s just trying too hard,” said Cliff Floyd, who hasn’t homered since August 16. “Hopefully, we can get it back because it would be a shame to waste what we’ve done so far.”

Lieber (13-12) threw 68 of 98 pitches for strikes, allowing four hits, striking out six, and walking none. He gave up his only run in the sixth when Jose Reyes led off with a triple and scored on Kaz Matsui’s groundout.

Matsui’s grounder started a string of nine straight outs for Lieber. Ugueth Urbina followed with a perfect eighth, and Wagner got three outs for his 32nd save in 34 chances. With a runner on first and two outs in the ninth, David Wright took a called third strike on a pitch he thought was inside, and he threw his bat in disgust.

After winning the first four games of a road trip last week, the Mets have lost four of five.

“We’re going to need to find it real quick if we’re going to stay in this thing,” Wright said.

Glavine (10-12) nearly matched Lieber, giving up three hits and four walks in seven innings. But he did himself in with his defense.

Jason Michaels doubled with one out in the first, Bobby Abreu walked, and Pat Burrell hit a comebacker for what should have been an easy inning-ending double play. But the pitcher fumbled the ball twice and could only get the out at first.

He loaded the bases with a walk to Chase Utley and got ahead in the count 0-2 on Bell, who lofted an opposite field single into short right field.