PITTSBURGH – Slowly but with certainty, all the pieces are coming together for the Mets. The starting pitching looks almost respectable, the hitting is coming around, and after last night’s 5-2 win over the Pirates, the Mets have won six of their last eight games and find themselves seven games over .500 and feeling good about themselves again.
Orel Hershiser outdueled former Met Pete Schourek (2-5), going six-plus innings and allowing only two runs on five hits to even his record at 4-4. He also had a key RBI double in the fifth that tied the game.
Benny Agbayani hit a solo home run and John Olerud had a two-RBI single in the ninth to extend a one-run lead into the final score. John Franco closed out the game in the ninth for his NL-leading 14th save in 14 tries.
It was Hershiser’s second straight win and third consecutive strong outing following a doctor’s visit to improve his vision. What he can see more clearly now is a team playing solid all-around baseball and looking very much like the playoff contender it should be.
Schourek was stifling the Mets through the first four innings, limiting them to two scattered singles by Mike Piazza and Hershiser and a walk. But in the fourth inning, the Mets’ bats finally broke through.
Agbayani, who started in center field and was hitting seventh, led off the fifth with a home run into the stands in right-center field. It was Agbayani’s fourth home run in just 38 at-bats this season, and it temporarily raised his incredible average to .526.
The home run off Schourek came on the first pitch and there was never any doubt about it. It landed about 410 feet away and the Mets had tied the game 1-1.
Schourek showed more signs of faltering when he allowed a single to Rey Ordonez. But Gene Lamont stuck with his starter and after Hershiser flirted with a couple of bunt attempts, he ripped a double down the left-field line and into the corner, sending Ordonez home with the go-ahead run standing up.
Henderson tried to move his fellow 40-year-old Hershiser over to third, but the bunt wasn’t good and Hershiser had to hold. Jermaine Allensworth hit a grounder to the right side which second baseman Warren Morris allowed to get behind him for an error. Hershiser tried to score on the play for an insurance run but a nice throw from Morris nailed him.
Olerud singled up the middle, but Piazza struck out to end the inning.
In the Pirates’ half of the fifth, Hershiser appeared to be cruising, getting the first two outs (Schourek and Al Martin) on three pitches. But Morris followed with a tremendous blast to right field to tie the game at 2-2.
But the see-saw continued as the Mets took the lead back in the top of the sixth. Edgardo Alfonzo, batting fifth against the lefty Schourek instead of Robin Ventura, doubled to left and then scored on Ventura’s double to the wall in right. The run gave the Mets a 3-2 lead and extended Alfonzo’s team lead with 38 runs.
But the back and forth stopped in the seventh inning when Dennis Cook came in and shut the door on a potential Pirate threat. Then Armando Benitez struck out the side in the eighth and Franco fanned two more in the ninth for the save.