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NL East-leading Mets defeat Dodgers 13-9
2007-07-20
It was a night to forget for Tom Glavine and Derek Lowe, who both tossed surprising clunkers in a pitching matchup that appeared stellar on paper. Glavine and Lowe each turned in season-worst outings, with both failing to notch any strikeouts. "I would have bet a paycheck that wasn't going to happen, but that goes to show you, that's baseball," Glavine said. "If I'm going to pitch crappy and we win, it's a whole lot easier to deal with." Carlos Delgado and Ramon Castro hit consecutive home runs in the sixth, Carlos Beltran added a solo shot in the eighth and the NL East-leading New York Mets beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 13-9 Thursday night. Everyone in the lineup scored in the Mets' highest-scoring game of the season. The teams combined for 35 hits, including a season-high 19 by the Dodgers. "They say it's contagious. People start hitting and next thing you know it doesn't matter, whoever comes up gets a hit," Delgado said. "You try to avoid that when you're at the receiving end, but when you're at the giving end, you try to enjoy it as much as you can." Matt Kemp hit a two-run home run and Jeff Kent homered for the Dodgers, who lost for the second time in three games to drop into a first-place tie with San Diego for the NL West lead. "You've got to be patient with Glavine because he never gives in," Kemp said. "He was making some pretty good pitches, but it just wasn't working for him, I guess. We kind of had his number and we were hitting the ball pretty hard." Aaron Sele (3-0) allowed one run on two hits in three innings in relief of Glavine. He walked two and struck out one. With Glavine and Lowe on the mound, "you expect a 2-1, 3-2 game," Sele said. "That's the thing about baseball. You come to the park not knowing what you're going to get." Rudy Seanez served up Delgado's 16th homer and Castro's sixth, extending the Mets' lead to 12-7. Beltran led off the eighth with his 17th homer off Mark Hendrickson, the Dodgers' fifth pitcher of the game, that made it 13-8. New York jumped all over Lowe (8-9) in the first, scoring six runs on six hits as the Mets batted around. "I'd describe it as live batting practice," Lowe said. "I made a ton of mistakes and they capitalized on every single one." David Wright hit a two-run double, Castro had an RBI single, Shawn Green added a two-run single and Ruben Gotay's RBI single capped the scoring binge. Kemp charged the ball hit into right field by Green and it rolled under his glove for an error that led to two runs. Glavine gave up consecutive singles to open the bottom of the first and the runners scored on Luis Gonzalez' single. Glavine, two victories away from 300, allowed six runs on 10 hits in two-plus innings and walked one in his shortest outing of the season. The 41-year-old left-hander made just 68 pitches. "Some nights it just doesn't matter what you do, it's not meant to be," he said. "It felt like when I made good pitches, they laid off them and when I made bad ones, they hit them." Lowe allowed nine runs on a season-high-tying 10 hits in three innings, his shortest outing since Sept. 20, 2005, against Arizona. He walked three in losing his third straight decision. "That's a good hitting team and the results were extremely ugly," he said. Los Angeles twice closed within three runs on pinch hits. Olmedo Saenz's sacrifice fly made it 9-6 in the third and Wilson Betemit's RBI single left the Dodgers trailing 10-7 in the fifth. Notes:@ Glavine also had no strikeouts in an 11-8 loss to the New York Yankees on June 16. ... The Dodgers allowed back-to-back homers for the third time this season. ... Tom Hanks, Ray Romano and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar attended the game. ... RHP Roberto Hernandez made his Dodger debut in the seventh, pitching one inning a day after having his contract purchased.
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