PHILADELPHIA -Jim Thome homered and drove in two runs to back Kevin Millwood, and the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Montreal Expos 8-3 Wednesday for their fifth win in six games.

Philadelphia, which began the day tied with Florida in the NL wild-card race, opens a four-game series with the Mets on Thursday.

Montreal, which took an early lead on Wil Cordero’s three-run homer, lost its sixth straight following a five-game winning streak and dropped five games behind the Phillies. The Expos are 25-47 on the road.

Millwood (14-9), who beat the Mets with eight shutout innings Friday, has won consecutive starts for the first time since May. He struck out eight in eight innings, allowing three runs and eight hits.

An error by Montreal third baseman Jamey Carroll led to five unearned runs in the third.

T.J. Tucker (0-2) retired his first seven batters, then gave up Todd Pratt’s homer. Carroll threw rushed his throw on Marlon Byrd’s two-out grounder, forcing first baseman Wil Cordero to leap high off the bag, and the Phillies followed with five straight hits.

Jimmy Rollins hit an RBI double off the right field wall, Bobby Abreu singled and Thome singled home the tying run. Pat Burrell hit a go-ahead double, and Chase Utley hit a two-run single that gave the Phillies a 6-3 lead and chased Tucker.

Jerry Morales walked the first two batters he faced, loading the bases, before retiring Millwood on a groundout.

Abreu hit an RBI single in the fourth, and Thome hit his second homer in two games in the sixth. Thome has 39 homers, the most homer for Philadelphia since Mike Schmidt hit 40 in 1983

Millwood had a shaky start. After retiring his first two batters, he walked Jose Vidro and Vladimir Guerrerro on pitches Millwood thought were strikes. Cordero followed with his homer.

Millwood turned and snapped his head, uncharacteristically displaying his disgust with the calls and the homer.

Another borderline pitch was called a ball on Ron Calloway, bringing Phillies manager Larry Bowa to the mound. Plate umpire Alfonso Marquez soon followed Bowa and they became involved in a brief argument. Bowa then was ejected for the sixth time this season.

Millwood gave up consecutive singles in the second inning, but didn’t allow another runner to reach second. He retired the side in order in the third, fifth and sixth innings, twice with the help of double plays.

Notes: Millwood won two straight decisions on June 29 and July 9 with a no-decision in between. He improved to 11-5 against the Expos. … Cordero was in a 2-for-28 slump and was 1-for-14 against Millwood before homering. Cordero’s homer was the first in 10 games by a Montreal player other than Vladimir Guerrero or Brad Wilkerson. … It was the final game for the Expos at Veterans Stadium, where they went 126-148. … Phillies team photographer Rosemary Rahn was hit by a foul and taken to a hospital.

AP-ES-09-03-03 1800EDT