If Bobby Valentine could’ve scripted the perfect formula for yesterday’s doubleheader, this would’ve been it: a huge afternoon from the heart of the order, big innings late in each game, and most of all, quality starts from the back end of the rotation.
The Amazin’s got all that and more to sweep the Cubs 8-3 and 7-6 yesterday in front of 32,204 at Shea Stadium.
On a damp afternoon that was as chilly as Valentine’s relationship with Don Baylor, the Mets got a 6-for-8, three-run day from right-fielder Derek Bell, clutch five-run innings in both games, and solid performances from fifth starter Glendon Rusch and knuckleballer Dennis Springer, just called up from Triple-A.
And when it was over, the Amazin’s had their first doubleheader sweep since last May, and a six-game winning streak, their longest since last July.
When Whartongate came down with the team in Pittsburgh, Robin Ventura had been asked his reaction. With a straight face, he said it looked like the start of a six-game winning streak. How right he was.
“We’re a good team. We’re coming together. We’re playing good baseball now,” Valentine said. “We’re coming back when we have to, playing good defense.”
“And I’m really proud of the way the two unknowns came through for us today,” Valentine added, referring to Rusch and Springer.
“Glendon was great, putting zeroes up, keeping people off-balance, giving us a chance to win. He’s coming into his own, trying to solidify himself as a major- league starter. That’s what this game’s all about, wanting it; and he wants it.”
The Cubs surely know who Rusch and Springer are now. Rusch (1-1) picked up his first win as a Met. Over the past two years, the southpaw had lost confidence in his changeup, his best pitch. But yesterday he stuck with it and held the Cubs to just four hits and two runs in seven innings, leaving with a 3-2 lead and then watching as the Mets hung five on the board in the bottom of the inning.
“My confidence has increased since I came over here. I’ve got a great team behind me. I’m still finding my way as a pitcher. I just have to keep learning every time out,” Rusch said. “I struggled early [in the game] with the changeup, but I just kept throwing it and it got better and better.”
After the Mets spotted him a 3-0 lead, Rusch gave up seventh-inning solo homers to Mark Grace and Shane Andrews to cut the lead to one, but the Amazin’s blew it open in the eighth with an RBI single from Rey Ordonez and two-RBI doubles to left from Bell and Benny Agbayani to turn a close game into a laugher.
The Mets jumped out to an early lead in the second game as well (2-0 in the first inning) when Agbayani poked a bases-loaded single through the hole at short. And even without his best knuckleball, Springer stifled the Cubs for five innings before tiring.
Jeff Huson put Chicago on the board with an RBI single in the fifth and Jeff Reed added a two-RBI to left the next inning. Roosevelt Brown’s bloop to right sent Reed to third and chased Springer; but Dennis Cook came on in relief and immediately picked Brown off first, and got Cub starter Kyle Farnsworth (1-3) to ground out to end the inning. And the Mets retook the lead in a big way in the bottom of the inning to make Cook (3-0) the winner.
Ventura led off the inning with a solo homer, and a Todd Zeile double, Agbayani walk and picture-perfect Kurt Abbott bunt loaded the bases with nobody out and chased Farnsworth. But reliever Mark Guthrie fared little better, getting ahead of Ordonez 0-2, only to allow the shortstop to slap a low pitch back up the middle for a two-RBI single. The Mets added two more runs on a Melvin Mora RBI sac fly and a Shane Andrews throwing error.
Henry Rodriguez stroked an RBI double in the seventh to cut the lead to 7-4, then tagged closer Armando Benitez for a two-out, two-run home run in the ninth, 432 feet off the scoreboard. But Benitez fanned Tarrick Brock to earn his seventh save and run the streak to six.
“I knew when I came here I’d have a chance to get to a World Series. This is a veteran team, with established guys,” Bell said. “I knew it was going to be a good team. We just had to gel and come together, and that’s what we’re doing.”