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| | Thursday, October 7 | |||||
| PHOENIX -- Once again Kenny Rogers fell short in the postseason. Only this time, his teammates couldn't bail him out. Rogers, who had three bad starts in the 1996 playoffs for the New York Yankees, was knocked out after giving up four runs in 4 1/3 innings in the New York Mets 7-1 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday night. "With the stuff I had, pretty much from the first inning I knew I'd have to battle," Rogers said. "I never really felt comfortable out there." The series heads back to New York tied at one game apiece. Rogers allowed 11 runs in seven innings in his only three previous playoff starts. But each time, the Yankees rallied to win after Rogers was knocked out. The Mets couldn't do the same against Todd Stottlemyre and the Diamondbacks, who went into the game with the best record (32-16) in the majors against left-handed starters. After the Mets took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third, Rogers ran into trouble in the bottom half. Jay Bell singled, Luis Gonzalez was hit by a pitch and Matt Williams bounced one just in front of the plate for an infield single to load the bases with two outs.Rogers, who excels at getting batters to hit grounders to baseball's best infield, didn't give his fielders a chance to get out of the inning. Rogers, who walked two batters with the bases loaded in a recent start against the Phillies, walked Greg Colburnn on a 3-1 pitch to tie the game. Steve Finley followed with a two-run single to make it 3-1. "We had two strikes on Gonzalez and a curveball backed up and hit him, and Williams got an infield hit, and a two-strike ground ball to right (Finley's)," Valentine said. "He could have left with two runs in five innings. That's not so bad."Finley added a two-run double in the fifth off Pat Mahomes, who relieved Rogers. Rogers allowed five hits, two walks and hit a batter during his stint, and said he was mildly surprised to be relieved. "I wouldn't second-guess any of it, because I wasn't dazzling," said Rogers, who threw 83 pitches, including 33 balls. "But I wasn't unhappy with what I was doing. I thought if I could get through six or seven innings with two or three runs, I'd be happy." Rogers didn't get much support other than from Rickey Henderson, who was 2-for-3, scored the Mets' only run and stole second three times. That tied the major league record for a game, set by Cleveland's Kenny Lofton on Oct. 4, 1995, and gave Hendrson five stolen bases in two games, an NL record for a division series. "Everybody does his job," Henderson said. "I don't want to focus on it. They got the breaks and won it, and it's even-even." But there wasn't much else. Edgardo Alfonzo, who hit two homers and drove in five runs in the opener, went 0-for-4, John Olerud, who also homered in Game 1, went 0-for-3, and Mike Piazza didn't get a hit until he singled in the eighth. The loss was the first for the Mets in October. They had to win their last three games to qualify for a one-game playoff with Cincinnati, beat the Reds 5-0, and then won the opener against the Diamondbacks. "I really enjoyed that winning streak, and hopefully we can start a new one," Alfonzo said. | ALSO SEE Finley drives in five as D-Backs pull even with Mets
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