NEW YORK -- Carlos Delgado did not necessarily bask in the afterglow of his team's win Thursday afternoon, even though he played the starring role. He expected this, even if so many others didn't, and Delgado's most recent success has served to vindicate all the hours he's worked in stadiums and batting cages across the country. But Delgado did bask in one fact -- in a slice of good fortune that seemed as if it might never come.

"I got my timing back," Delgado said with a smile.

Timing, at precisely the right time. With his swing intact, Delgado laced a tiebreaking two-run double in the eighth inning Thursday afternoon, and the Mets parlayed that into a 3-1 victory and a series win over the Phillies.

"He's a streaky hitter to begin with," David Wright said. "And when he gets hot, he gets ridiculously hot."

So hot, in fact, that Delgado entered Thursday's game with a .406 average and five home runs in July. He made outs in each of his first three at-bats, but when he came to bat with two men on in the eighth inning, Delgado lined a J.C. Romero pitch into the left-field corner to plate both of them.

Billy Wagner, no longer dealing with worries over his tight left shoulder, nailed down the save. And the Mets took the series, leaving Shea in sole possession of first place for the first time since April 19.

Their long road back from mediocrity was complete. And Delgado -- the most mediocre among them for quite some time -- was a significant reason why.

Coming off the worst full season of his professional career, Delgado entered this year determined to prove that his struggles were not a product of his age -- now 36 and counting. Because if age had indeed robbed him of his bat speed, or his timing, or any other skill critical to hitting, then his career may as well have been over.

That nearly seemed to be the case for three full months, after the last of which Delgado was batting .228 with limited power. Now, he's batting .262 with ample power. He's grabbed the fourth spot in the lineup from Carlos Beltran's grasp, and the Mets expect him to remain there for the immediate future.

Not bad for a month's work.

Perhaps Delgado's reputation hasn't quite caught up with his newfound success, either. Phillies manager Charlie Manuel -- albeit with the left-handed Romero on the mound -- chose to intentionally walk Wright so that he could take his chances with Delgado in the eighth. The move, in retrospect, put the final pieces of this victory in place.

"He's a threat in there," Wagner said. "They can't just walk the guy in front of him to get to him. They have to pick their poison. And he's showing that every time they're choosing him, he's making them pay for it."

The Phillies might have been even more miffed, considering the game that Jamie Moyer pitched for them. Allowing just two hits over his seven innings, Moyer gave up nothing more than a run-scoring single to Wright in the third.

Yet Moyer never felt the comforts of a win, because Oliver Perez was pitching equally as well. Aided by home-plate umpire Eric Cooper's generous-yet-consistent strike zone, Perez struck out 12 Phillies over 7 2/3 innings. He allowed a solo home run to Jayson Werth in the seventh, then loaded the bases in the eighth before Aaron Heilman entered the game and preserved the tie.

But until that time, Perez was about as good as Perez can be.

"I just try and pitch like I'm facing the best team in baseball," he said. "And when I take the ball, I'm thinking like I'm the best pitcher in the league."

Best in the league -- now there's a superlative the Mets haven't heard for some time. They're not quite there, still well behind the pace set by the Cubs, but they're now officially the best team in the division.

And that's great. But it's also not enough.

"The season doesn't end tomorrow," Wright said. "We can't be happy with what we've accomplished so far. We can't be happy with being in first place."

They haven't maxed out this talent pool just yet. The Mets could have won on Tuesday night, after all, but they blew a three-run lead in the ninth. Then they showed about as much resiliency as they've shown all season, winning each of the next two games with late-inning hits.

So much of the credit goes, as manager Jerry Manuel said, to "the big fella," Delgado. They needed him to hit -- they've needed him to hit for the better part of a year now -- and he's doing precisely that. So they're winning. They're happy once again.

"I've been around long enough that I understand that not every day is going to be a great day," Delgado said. "But you can always find a way to do positive stuff."