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GAME LOG
NEW YORK (AP) -- Glendon Rusch finally got a few breaks.
Rusch, who has pitched in tough luck much of the year, allowed
just three hits in seven scoreless innings as the New York Mets
beat the Montreal Expos 5-0 Tuesday night.
"I don't feel like I made a lot of great pitches. I got away
with some things," Rusch said. "I always said earlier in the year
that it evens out throughout the course of the season, and you have
to believe that."
|  | | Good things happen to the Mets when Glendon Rusch is on the mound. New York is 9-3 in his last 12 outings. |
Rusch (7-7) struck out the side in the first inning but did not
have great command. He walked four and loaded the bases with no
outs in the fifth on two walks and a single.
Still, he escaped unscathed as Jose Vidro grounded into a force
play at the plate, and Geoff Blum hit a soft liner to shortstop
Melvin Mora that turned into an inning-ending double play.
"That was a big sigh of relief," Rusch said.
The Mets are 9-3 in Rusch's last 12 outings, and he has allowed
three runs or less in 13 of his 18 starts. But the victory was the
left-hander's first in five starts since June 27.
"He deserves that. He deserves to be able to get some breaks,"
Mets manager Bobby Valentine said. "And it's another step forward
to be able to go out and win without his best stuff."
Mike Piazza, playing at Shea Stadium for the first time since
being beaned by a Roger Clemens fastball July 8, had three hits and
two RBI.
He received a warm ovation and delivered an RBI single in the
first inning to give the Mets the only run they would need.
He drove in another run with a fifth-inning single, and also
singled in the third. He finished 3-for-4 as the Mets returned home
from an 11-game road trip that began right after the All-Star
break.
Montreal had its four-game winning streak snapped.
"In the fifth inning, we had our shot there. But we didn't make
much of it," Montreal manager Felipe Alou said.
Rusch contributed at the plate, too. He had a sacrifice bunt as
New York took a 2-0 lead in the second, and drew a 10-pitch walk
from Dustin Hermanson (8-8) that ignited a two-run rally in the
fourth.
Two hits and one out later, Rusch scored on Piazza's single, and
Todd Zeile followed with a bases-loaded walk that made it 4-0.
"That really was a great at-bat for an .033 hitter, maybe the
best at-bat of his career," Valentine said, laughing. "Call it a
hunch."
Hermanson, who gave up just one run in 8 2/3 innings of a
victory over the Mets last Thursday, allowed four runs, nine hits
and four walks in four innings, matching his shortest start this
season.
"I got behind a lot of hitters and I threw a lot of pitches,"
he said. "I thought I made some very good pitches tonight that
they hit. It seemed like every ball we hit went to somebody, but
balls they hit found holes."
Mora, who set up Lenny Harris' RBI groundout with a beautiful
bunt single in the second, added a two-out, RBI double off
Guillermo Mota in the seventh.
Game notes
Mets manager Bobby Valentine tied Gil Hodges for second on
the club's career list with 339 victories. ... All-Star 2B Edgardo
Alfonzo was back in the Mets lineup after missing a three-game
weekend series at Atlanta with a hip injury. ... Expos RF Vladimir
Guerrero returned to the lineup and went 1-for-4 after missing four
starts with a hip injury. ... Blum, who had homered in three
straight games, went 0-for-4. He flied out to the left-field wall
in the third. ... Montreal RHP Hideki Irabu is scheduled to come
off the DL on Wednesday and make his first start since May 26. He
had surgery on his right knee to remove torn cartilage. It will be
Irabu's first start in New York since being traded by the Yankees
last winter. ... The Expos optioned RHP Guillermo Mota to Triple-A
Ottawa after the game.
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