Mets 4, Padres 2

It's almost like there's some kind of curse over Shea Stadium that causes hitters with first-class major league resumes to forget how to hit when they show up. I know it's always been a pitcher's park, but it's more than that. It happened to Roberto Alomar. It happened to Mo Vaughn. Jeromy Burnitz fought futilely against it last year and when he started to make some headway this year, he wound up with a broken hand. And Cliff Floyd's struggles this year are among the most baffling examples. Even Mike Piazza's fallen victim to it this year, as it's seemed like all of his extra base hits have been carefully positioned to occur with no one on base.

The Mets' dismal hitting has been costing their starting pitchers wins left and right this week, turning good starts from Steve Trachsel, Tom Glavine and Jae Seo into big fat Ls. Today, Al Leiter went out and gave the Mets another good performance in search of his fifth win on the season. He gave up just two runs in seven innings, giving up just four hits as well as four walks and striking out three. But the Met offense also struggled to get two runs during those seven innings, so Leiter wound up with a no decision. Raul Gonzalez drove in one run with a double and Cliff Floyd another with a sacrifice fly. Piazza hit a double with no one on.

Thankfully for the Mets, the bullpen was able to hold the Expos scoreless in the eighth and ninth to send the game into extra innings. Scott Strickland got a couple of outs before leaving with a groin strain. Armando Benitez pitched a scoreless 1 1/3 innings, giving up one hit and striking out two. The Mets were unable to score in those two innings either, though, so the game moved into extra innings.

Mike Stanton and his apparently bionic arm came in in to pitch the tenth. He gave up a pair of walks and hit, but managed to not allow those to add up to a run and the game was still tied as it headed to the bottom of the tenth.

The Padres had brought in Jaret Wright to pitch the ninth and he stayed on to pitch the tenth, having already given up two hits. Jay Bell led off with a single and it was another clutch opportunity for Piazza. Starting the day on the tenth of May, he had just three home runs and, even more mind-bogglingly, six RBI. The first fastball from Wright was high and inside and Piazza backed up and laid off. The next one wound up in a more palatable position over the plate for Piazza, who escorted it to an even nicer spot, that of the left field bleachers.

The Mets' record now stands at 15-21 and they'll hope to finish off the homestand on a high note tomorrow as Pedro Astacio (2-1, 7.31) takes on young Jake Peavy (4-3, 4.46) before they try to bring their bats to life with a trip to Coors Field on Monday.  ¶ joe | 6:57 PM |