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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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GAME LOG
NEW YORK (AP) – After watching the New York Mets stumble for the
past month without him, Al Leiter energized the National League
champions.
|  | | Al Leiter pitches six scoreless innings in his return from the DL to pick up his first win of the season. |
Leiter pitched six scoreless innings in his return from the
disabled list, and the struggling Mets gave Los Angeles ace Kevin
Brown his worst beating of the year in an 8-0 win over the Dodgers
on Friday night.
"I'm glad I was able to do my part, my share and help this team
win a ballgame," said Leiter, who had been out since April 20 with
a sore left elbow. "I knew our work would be cut out for us facing
Kevin Brown."
Leiter pitched with purpose from the start, working quickly and
pitching aggressively. That approach appeared to relax the Mets,
who have been tense of late in losing eight of nine games.
"There had been doubt about getting him back at all," manager
Bobby Valentine said. "Seeing him out there and hearing him in the
dugout was a settling feeling."
Darren Bragg drove in four runs, Robin Ventura homered and
doubled, and Desi Relaford scored three times for the Mets, who had
their biggest offensive output since beating Colorado 10-9 on May
14 at Coors Field.
Entering the game, New York was last in the majors with 145 runs
scored and Brown's 1.09 ERA was the best in the game.
This game didn't hold form. The Mets scored one run in the third
inning and four in the fourth against Brown (5-2), who hadn't
allowed more than three earned runs in any of his seven previous
starts.
"I couldn't make the ball do what I wanted it to do," Brown
said. "It was a matter of really making a lot of bad pitches."
That was more than enough for Leiter (1-3), who was sharp,
allowing four hits and one walk in his 88-pitch outing.
"Al was the story tonight," Valentine said. "He was fabulous.
He had all his pitches working and he threw them all for strikes.
It was the same aggressive Al we're accustomed to having here."
New York's recent struggles have run much deeper than Leiter's
absence. The Mets (16-25) are 8 1/2 games behind Philadelphia in the
NL East, last in the majors in runs scored and 14th in the league
in pitching. They had been outscored 74-21 in nine-plus games since
taking a 9-0 lead after three innings in Colorado on May 7.
But the return of their ace was uplifting, especially on a day
when the ineffective Steve Trachsel (1-6, 8.24 ERA) was sent back
to the minors.
"He's done it all three years I've been here," Ventura said of
Leiter. "He comes up with big games when we've been struggling."
Leiter didn't take long to establish himself, striking out Mark
Grudzielanek and Gary Sheffield in the first inning. The Dodgers
didn't get a runner to third base against Leiter or Turk Wendell,
who finished the five-hitter for his first save.
"Knowing what has gone on here and that nobody has been having
a whole lot of fun, I obviously wanted to get out there and do what
I needed to do," Leiter said.
Brown had his 19-inning scoreless streak snapped in the third
inning. Relaford led off with a single, stole second and scored on
Bragg's one-out single.
New York might have scored even more except shortstop Jeff
Reboulet robbed Mike Piazza of a hit with runners on first and
third and two outs.
The Mets weren't done with Brown. Ventura led off the fourth
inning with his sixth homer. Tsyoshi Shinjo and Todd Zeile followed
with singled before Relaford's RBI double made it 3-0.
"We don't feel like any pitcher in the league should shut us
down," Relaford said. "We are the NL champs."
A passed ball by Chad Kreuter and an RBI single by Timo Perez
scored two more runs.
Brown gave up five runs and nine hits in four innings – his
shortest outing of the season – to raise his ERA to 1.86.
Bragg added a three-run double in the eighth off Gregg Olson.
The Dodgers have struggled at the plate of late, scoring three
runs or fewer in six of their past seven games. Sheffield has had a
particularly rough time, going hitless in 16 at-bats on the first
four games of this road trip.
"We're just not working the counts," he said. "We're not
getting ourselves into hitter's counts. We need to get ourselves
back to basics.
Game notes
Brown had allowed one earned run or less in six of his
first seven starts this season. ... The Mets' two wins in the past
10 games have both been shutouts. ... RF Shawn Green's throwing
error in the fourth inning snapped Los Angeles' six-game errorless
streak.
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Mets send shell-shocked Trachsel down, start Leiter
RECAPS
Baltimore 7
Minnesota 2
Detroit 18
Tampa Bay 2
Boston 6
Kansas City 3
Toronto 9
Texas 3
Cleveland 7
Anaheim 2
Oakland 3
Chi. White Sox 2
NY Yankees 14
Seattle 10
Arizona 4
Chicago Cubs 0
Florida 2
Colorado 1
Montreal 3
San Diego 1
Philadelphia 5
St. Louis 4
Milwaukee 0
Pittsburgh 0
NY Mets 8
Los Angeles 0
Atlanta 6
San Francisco 5
Cincinnati 7
Houston 4
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