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Sunday, May 14 1:10pm ET
Piazza grand slam cuts down Marlins | ||||||
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NEW YORK (AP) -- Mike Piazza had one good swing all day, but one good swing was all he needed. Piazza hit his 10th career grand slam home run Sunday, carrying Mike Hampton and the New York Mets to a 5-1 victory over Florida that ended the Marlins' four-game winning streak.
"After the first pitch, I saw the third baseman stay back," Hampton said. "He didn't move up so I thought I'd take a chance and try to get on base." The bunt was perfect and then when Joe McEwing, leading off and playing left field in place of released Rickey Henderson, followed with a double into the left-field corner, Hampton came all the way home with the game's first run. "I was coming all the way, running hard," he said. "A lot of guys on this team run hard. That's the way the game should be played. You do what it takes." McEwing reached third on a throwing error by left fielder Danny Bautista and then Derek Bell walked and stole second. That eliminated a potential double play and forced the Marlins to play the infield in. "That was the key to the inning," Florida manager John Boles said. When Penny fell behind against Edgardo Alfonzo, he was walked intentionally, loading the bases for Piazza. "You pick your poison, there's no doubt about that," Boles said. "But you get behind 3-0 to Alfonzo, you've just got to hope Piazza hits into a double play or pops it up. We're trying to get out of the inning without any more runs. When you're 3-0 on Alfonzo with the infield in, that's not a good situation, either." Piazza capitalized, connecting on a 1-1 pitch for his 10th home run. "It was really my only good swing of the day," Piazza said. "I didn't try to pull it. I hit the ball to right field the way I know I can do. I thought at least it was a sacrifice fly." New York won for just the fourth time in 13 games, while Florida lost for just the second time in nine. Hampton, who took a shutout into the ninth inning of his previous start, got in trouble early against the Marlins but wound up allowing eight hits in his first complete game of the season. Mark Kotsay and Chris Clapinski hit his first two pitches for singles, and Kevin Millar followed with another hit, loading the bases with none out in the first inning. But Hampton struck out Preston Wilson and got Derrek Lee to bang into an inning-ending double play started by third baseman Robin Ventura. After that, Hampton retired 11 straight batters over one stretch and nine straight over another. He struck out five and walked none after coming into the game leading the league with 37 bases on balls. Then he ran into trouble in the eighth, allowing consecutive singles by Alex Gonzalez, Mike Redmond and pinch hitter Brant Brown to give the Marlins a run. But Hampton got the next three batters, ending the threat.
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