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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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GAME LOG
NEW YORK (AP) -- Mike Piazza wasn't done with the Atlanta Braves,
and neither were the New York Mets.
|  | | Mets catcher Mike Piazza, left, who has RBI in 14 straight games, shows he can get it done on defense too. Piazza tagged out Andruw Jones in the sixth inning Saturday. Jones protests to home plate umpire Bruce Froemming. |
A night after a magical 10-run eighth inning vaulted them to an
improbable comeback win, Piazza and the Mets beat up on the Braves
from the beginning, sending Greg Maddux to his quickest exit in
four years with a 9-1 rout Saturday.
"We didn't only lose," John Rocker said, "we got embarrassed
a bit."
For now at least, Friday night's transformation of an 8-1 loss
into an 11-8 victory has energized the Mets, who have won two
straight over Atlanta after losing 19 of 25 regular-season games to
the Braves.
Piazza, whose three-run, tiebreaking homer capped Friday's
comeback, came back Saturday with a two-run shot off Maddux, a
rocket to left-center that put the Mets ahead 7-0 in a six-run
second -- all the runs scoring with two outs.
"You just want to keep the accelerator down, win ballgames,
ride the momentum," he said.
Mets' fans roared when Maddux gave up six straight hits. "It felt like a continuous plane flying over the ballpark,"
Piazza said.
Piazza has RBIs in 14 straight games, the second-longest streak
in major league history, three short of the record set by Ray
Grimes of the 1922 Chicago Cubs. Piazza also has 22 homers, 70 RBIs
and a 19-game hitting streak.
It wasn't just him.
Derek Bell was 4-for-5 with two doubles, a homer and four RBIs,
and Benny Agbayani had a solo shot to back Al Leiter (10-1), who
struck out a season-high 12 in seven innings.
"This series could go a long way to creating some mental edges
later in the season," said Chipper Jones, who returned from
Atlanta following the birth of his son. "If we win tomorrow, it's
a stalemate."
If not, the Mets will move into first place, two percentage
points ahead of the Braves.
Leiter got his 100th career victory, the Mets' ninth win in 10
games, allowing six hits and improving to 5-0 at home this year.
He left Shea Stadium when the eighth inning began Friday night,
and was about to pull into his garage when he heard Edgardo
Alfonzo's game-tying single. Since he didn't want to lose the radio
signal by parking his car underground, Leiter waited in his car, on
the corner of 83rd Street and First Avenue, listened to Piazza's
homer, then parked and quickly went upstairs to his apartment to
watch replays.
"I was pretty up today," he said.
So was Bell, who has scored a run in a team-record 11 straight
games. Teammate Melvin Mora has scored in 10 in a row. With every
win, the Mets are putting distance between themselves and last
year, when Atlanta beat them 4-2 in the NL championship series.
And it's not just the holdovers from last season who want to
bash the Braves. "They whipped my butt when I was in Houston, too," Bell said.
Maddux (9-3) left after the second inning, his shortest start
since Sept. 28, 1996, when he threw two innings at Montreal. He
dropped to 10-9 career at Shea Stadium, where he gave up eight runs
and 11 hits in three innings last Sept. 29.
This time, the four-time NL Cy Young Award winner, push back two
days because of the flu, allowed seven runs and seven hits. "I felt fine. No excuses, really," Maddux said. "I made a
couple of bad pitches."
Rocker, the controversial Atlanta reliever whose presence
required a protective force of 700 police plus a pair of
bomb-sniffing dogs, didn't play for the second straight night. Rocker split open a callous on his pitching thumb while warming
up Friday night, but said he was available Saturday.
"I would suck it up, somehow, I was going to do it," he said.
New York went ahead in the first when Bell doubled with one out,
advanced on a grounder and came home as Piazza struck out and
reached on a wild pitch. He swung at a sinker and immediately
hustled down the line, just beating the throw from catcher Fernando
Lunar.
"People here should get the tickets just to see him play,"
Mets manager Bobby Valentine gushed.
Agbayani homered to deep left with two outs in the second on an
pitch at his knees. Leiter singled and took third on Mora's double.
Bell, just 8-for-53 (.151) against Maddux coming in, then doubled
them home for a 4-0 lead.
Alfonzo had an RBI single on an 0-2 pitch and Piazza, like he
did Friday, jumped on the first pitch.
"I pitched him pretty good the first time up, but then I hung a
slider right down the middle, and I wasn't surprised with what
happened," Maddux said.
Former-Met Bobby Bonilla drove in Atlanta's run with a
fourth-inning single. Bell added a two-run homer in the eighth off
Don Wengert, causing a new round of "We Want Rocker!" chants.
But the No. 1 villain of Mets' fans hasn't been the story of the
series thus far. Starting with the eighth inning Friday, the Mets
have outscored Atlanta 19-1. Of New York's 20 runs in the last two
games, 17 were scored with two outs.
"Things can turn around really quick," Atlanta center fielder
Andruw Jones said, "We've just got to let it go and come back
tomorrow."
Piazza saw it differently. "The game you win now," he said, "is one less game to win
down the stretch."
Game notes
Time warp: When public address announcer Del DeMontreaux
introduced a new Braves shortstop in the sixth inning, he said,
"Al ... Walt Weiss," thinking back to the second baseman of the
1969 Miracle Mets... Atlanta 2B Quilvio Veras fouled a ball off his
left calf in the first inning and left the game in the second. He
may be able to play Sunday. ... ... Maddux threw only 45 pitches.
It's possible he could be brought back Tuesday, giving him two
starts before the All-Star break.
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ALSO SEE
Baseball Scoreboard
Atlanta Clubhouse
NY Mets Clubhouse
Braves' Jones back in lineup after wife gives birth
Callous KO's Rocker as 'Battery Night' fizzles
Mets' Reed out two to three weeks with broken wrist
RECAPS
Chi. White Sox 7
Boston 2
NY Yankees 6
Tampa Bay 1
Baltimore 12
Toronto 5
Minnesota 4
Cleveland 3
Detroit 8
Kansas City 7
Seattle 6
Texas 3
Anaheim 7
Oakland 2
NY Mets 9
Atlanta 1
Arizona 9
Cincinnati 6
San Francisco 4
Los Angeles 1
St. Louis 10
Houston 9
Florida 6
Montreal 5
Philadelphia 4
Pittsburgh 3
Milwaukee 4
Chicago Cubs 0
San Diego 5
Colorado 3
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Chipper Jones says the Braves were ready to play on Saturday despite the loss.
wav: 134 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
Al Leiter knows how important this series is for the Mets.
wav: 90 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
Mike Piazza says the Mets need to win on Sunday.
wav: 83 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
Derek Bell hopes his team does not rest until the season is over.
wav: 108 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
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