Mets Climb Back to .500 With Powerful Win Over Phillies
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Mike Piazza drove in three runs with a single and his ninth home run of the season and Carlos Beltran had a double and triple, punctuating one Mets rally and touching off another last night in an 8-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Mets won for fourth time in the last five games and drew back to .500 at 38-38 as they started a stretch of 10 straight games against division opponents.
It was the fifth straight loss for the Phillies (39-38) and 10th in 13 games following a 12-1 homestand.
Piazza hit a fifth-inning single that put the Mets ahead 3-1 and homered in the sixth off Amaury Telemaco. With 387 homers, Piazza moved within two of Johnny Bench for 46th place.
Philadelphia got home runs from David Bell in the eighth and Jason Michaels in the ninth.
Victor Zambrano (4-6) allowed one run, four hits, and three walks in five innings, striking out a season-high seven.
Rookie Robinson Tejeda (1-1) gave up two runs, three hits, and five walks in four innings for the Phillies.
Jose Reyes opened the third with his 10th walk of the season, Mike Cameron followed with an RBI double into the left-field corner, and Beltran hit a run scoring double. After walking Cliff Floyd, Tejeda retired the next three batters.
Jim Thome opened the fourth with a walk, moved up on an infield out, and reached third on a single by Chase Utley. Bell’s second hit scored Thome.
Zambrano got in trouble in the fifth when he hit Michaels for the second time in the game and walked Thome and Pat Burrell with two outs. He ran the count to 3-2 on Utley and then struck him out.
The Mets scored four runs in the bottom half and turned over a 6-1 lead to the bullpen.
In the bottom of the fifth, Beltran opened with a triple against Geoff Geary and scored when Piazza bounced a one out single through the drawn-in infield. Marlon Anderson bounced a single into right field, sending Piazza to third. David Wright followed with a two-strike single to right, scoring Piazza and moving Anderson to third. Brian Daubach’s infield out scored Anderson.
Jose Offerman, making his debut for the Mets, batted for Zambrano and singled to score Wright.
Zambrano’s first-inning strikeout of Bobby Abreu was the 500th strikeout this season for the Mets’ pitching staff.
