D-backs8 Mets7
A loss was the only appropriate way for this one to end for the Mets. An ugly, mistake-filled game in which a patchwork of relievers was assembled to keep a hot-hitting team off the bases. It didn’t work.
With scheduled starter Jason Isringhausen only able to play catch yesterday due to a sore elbow, the Diamondbacks scored two runs off Allen Watson, three off Pat Mahomes and Turk Wendell, and three off Rigo Beltran to defeat the Mets 8-7 yesterday on a hot, sweaty day at Shea.
The Mets, who lost for the second time in two days to Arizona, had a big two-run home run from John Olerud, another solo shot from Benny Agbayani and an RBI double from Rickey Henderson in the eighth. But the comeback fell short against side-arming 20-year-old Korean right-hander Byung-Hyun Kim, who earned the save in his major league debut against one of the teams that tried unsuccessfuly to sign him.
Diamondbacks starter Armando Reynoso increased his record to 3-1 while Beltran (1-1) took the loss.
Pitching for the first time against his old team, Reynoso wasn’t brilliant, giving up five runs on six hits in five innings. But he left with a lead, and that’s what counts.
According to Bobby Valentine, Reynoso was a savior of sorts last year when he came back from elbow problems to add a sixth starter to the Mets rotation. Not only was he 7-3 in 11 starts for the Mets, he gave the other pitchers who needed some rest, like Rick Reed, an extra day in between starts.
“I love Armando,” Valentine said before the game. “He’s a terrific competitor and pitcher.”
But the Mets were uncertain that his elbow would hold up and so they would not match the three-year deal Arizona was willing to give him as a free agent.
“There were a lot of ifs,” Valentine said.
Instead, the Mets signed Orel Hershiser and Watson to replace Reynoso and Brian Bohanon. Watson started yesterday for the ailing Isringhausen and pitched OK, allowing two runs in 31/3 innings before being forced from the game when he was hit on the left foot by a ball hit by Gregg Colbrunn. Like Reynoso, he left the game with a lead.
The Mets took leads of 2-1 in the first and 3-2 in the third, but the Diamondbacks took the lead back in the fifth inning when they scored three time off Mahomes and Wendell. It all started with a leadoff walk to Steve Finley. He went to third on Jay Bell’s single to center and scored on Luis Gonzalez’s single to right.
With the score tied 3-3 and Mahomes showing signs of losing it, Wendell was summoned from the bullpen as the crowd screamed its delight at having one of their favorites in the game. Wendell proceeded to slam the rosin bag on the ground as the fans roared and then struck out Matt Williams on three straight nasty sliders.
With runners at first and third and one out pinch hitter Travis Lee hit a bouncer up the middle. Luis Lopez, playing short for Rey Ordonez, tried to make the tricky play by standing on the bag, picking the ball out of the air for the force and then throwing to first for the inning-ending double play.
But with his foot anchored to the bag, Lopez was unable to catch the ball and not only was everyone safe, but Bell scored the go-ahead run. That brought ex-Met Bernard Gilkey to the plate. Gilkey swatted a single to single to right-center, scoring Gonzalez as the Diamondbacks now took a 5-3 lead. All three runs in the inning were charged to Mahomes.
The Mets escaped further damage when Gilkey was caught stealing and Damian Miller struck out.
Now trailing 5-3, the Mets took the offensive against Reynoso in the bottom of the fifth. With one out Edgardo Alfonzo reached on a bloop to right field and Olerud followed with a blast to the back of the Mets’ bullpen in right field, an estimated 397-foot blast that made it 5-5.
The fans at Shea were loudly approving of the Mets’ little comeback, but in the sixth it was all taken away from them. Beltran gave up a three-run homer to Bell, his 15th of the season as the Diamondbacks went back on top 8-6.
The Mets cut back into the lead with Agbayani’s sixth home run and second in as many nights, but they could have had more.