Mets15
Cubs8
Finally, we are seeing the Mets that you thought could go to the World Series. Yesterday’s 15-8 domination of the Cubs in front of a soggy 27,560 at Shea completed the Amazin’s second consecutive home sweep of a Central Division team. They are winners of seven straight and nine of their last 10.
Whartongate is a week old. Don Baylor – who came into Shea talking about lineup cards – left threatening lineup changes. This is what these Mets can do if they continue to play as they have of late.
There is Mike Piazza, on one of his classic tears, hitting a homer and two doubles in four at-bats, and he didn’t even play five innings. There is Derek Bell – the best player in the Mike Hampton trade so far – fielding at a Gold Glove level and hitting .586 over his last seven games, which includes yesterday’s homer and four RBIs in his latest four-hit game.
The only aspect that wasn’t outstanding for the Mets yesterday was Hampton’s pitching line. He went seven innings and gave up five runs, three earned, but did win his second consecutive start.
“He hasn’t found his consistency yet this year,” GM Steve Phillips said of the 2-3 Hampton. “He’s getting closer each time out to finding that.”
Hampton got the run support he needed and left satisfied with coming away with a victory.
“We won,” said Hampton, who added he is getting more comfortable with his new surroundings, which again included the cold conditions yesterday. “As long as we’re winning when I’m pitching, I can live with it.”
If Hampton is the pitcher the Mets hope will lead them to the Series, he had better throw well in the cold, since that’s generally the weather at Shea in October.
With the Mets just a half-game behind the Braves (who have also won seven in a row), those dreams live even after the rough beginning to this season.
In fact, things went so well for the Mets yesterday that by the sixth inning – if not for the weather and no Garth Brooks – you could’ve mistaken Shea for Thomas J. White Stadium in Port St. Lucie.
By the top of the that frame, Piazza, Bell, Edgardo Alfonzo, Robin Ventura and Rey Ordonez were all out of the game. The Mets led at that point, 15-3.
The Mets put up three in the first, seven in the fourth and five in the fifth to end the suspense early. They finished with 18 hits, including homers by Piazza, Alfonzo and Bell.
Alfonzo started things off in the first by hooking a 1-0 Kevin Tapani delivery 342 feet over the left field wall. He scored Bell and gave Hampton a quick two-run cushion. Piazza followed it up with his fifth homer of the year, a rocket to center.
But Hampton lost the lead by giving up a run in the second on an RBI double to former Yankee Joe Girardi and a 376-foot, two-run homer the opposite way on a “mistake” fastball to Sammy Sosa in the third.
“He’s getting the ‘W,'” said Valentine, who added that his stuff looked good except for a couple of pitches up.
After Jay Payton, Ordonez and Hampton had RBI hits, Bell took a Tapani 1-0 delivery over the left-field wall for a three-run homer, highlighting a seven-run fourth that was capped by some laughable Cubs play
After Alfonzo grounded to short for the second out, Piazza hit a shot to right center for a double. On a Robin Ventura pop-up to short left, third baseman Shane Andrews and shortstop Rickey Gutierrez smacked into each other. Andrews was charged with the error as Piazza came around to score the Mets’ 10th run.
The Mets sent nine more batters to the plate and scored five more runs in the fifth to make it 15-3. Piazza provided the biggest hit of the inning by knocking two-run double to right-center. This left Baylor threatening his team with lineup changes.
“He should be,” Girardi said of his upset manager. “We’re making it hard for him to manage; just screwing up out there.”
These Mets can do that to an overmatched team.