NEW YORK -- They came seeking revenge, and maybe more than that.

	Clemens

	Estes

The stands at Shea Stadium were packed with Yankee-haters who wanted to see Roger Clemens pay for a two-year-old baseball felony against Mike Piazza. Ever since the summer of 2000, Mets fans had waited for the moment when the Rocket would -- finally - stand at the plate, face a Mets pitcher, and get what was coming to him.

The result?

It depends on how voracious your appetite for punishment. The Mets never did knock Clemens to the ground, or even hit him with a pitch. In fact, when Shawn Estes delivered a clear message with a fastball in the third inning on Saturday, he simply missed -- sailing the fastball behind Clemens' rump.

But that's not to say the Mets didn't have the final word against the Rocket, and after Saturday's 8-0 public flogging, it appears the Piazza-Clemens file has finally been closed. That's because the Mets got to Clemens the old-fashioned way. Not with violence or injury or in-your-face rhetoric, but in the linescore.

The Mets embarrassed the Rocket by hitting two HRs off him - one by Estes, of all people, the other by Piazza. And if you don't think that wounded the Rocket, then you didn't see the dazed, unseeing expression on his face as he walked off the mound in the sixth inning, trailing 4-0.

The Yankees claimed their ace had to leave because of a foot injury he suffered running the bases in the top of the inning, but that didn't matter to the Roger Must Pay army, who drenched him in a tidal wave of boos, taunts and insults.

Still, the Yankees took the defeat calmly, and Clemens himself, though battered, offered no other words of retaliation.

For now, it spears the Mets and Yankees have finally reached a truce.

"I'm not sure I needed any closure on this. I'm just glad it's over," Joe Torre said wearily. "So much had been made of this ... (the Mets) were just better than us today."

"We never had any ulterior motive, except to hit Roger and hit well," Piazza said. "To me, there was never an issue in the first place. It was just a good ballgame that we played and needed to win."

Piazza, of course, had the right to sign off on any further retribution, since he was the one who suffered a Clemens-delivered concussion two summers ago. But that didn't stop the Mets from delivering a message to the Rocket in his first at-bat, or at least trying to.

This was the moment everyone in New York had anticipated -- the Rocket's one-on-one with a Mets fastball, regardless of who it was delivered by.

Yes, it was strange seeing Clemens standing in the batter's box. Even stranger seeing him two feet away from Piazza. Naturally, the two men ignored each other, careful to not even make eye contact. Instead, Clemens tapped the dirt out of his spikes, while Piazza looked into the dugout, perhaps awaiting instructions from Bobby Valentine.

Whatever decision was made, it was clear what happened next: Estes' fastball was headed right for Clemens hip but instead sailed off its mark, going behind Clemens. That prompted an immediate warning from home plate umpire Wally Bell, which may or may not have prevented the Rocket from retaliating against any of the Mets; but for moment, it sure made Estes look like he'd failed to even the score against Clemens.

That is, until he stepped to the plate in the fifth inning and realized that, a) the Yankees' ace was throwing 5-6 mph slower than in the first two innings and b) if he "cheated" against one of the Rocket's fastballs -- that is, start his swing early -- he might actually have a chance to connect.

So that's just what Estes did, first hitting a long foul ball just wide of the left-field foul pole, and then two pitches later, thundering another fastball over the wall. Incredibly, Estes said his greatest challenge was, "trying not to smile as I was running around the bases. I didn't want to show anyone up."

That would be up to Piazza, who all but ended the Rocket's afternoon by crushing an 84-mph splitter over the wall in left -- the Mets' second and even more devastating HR of the day. By now, Clemens was completely out of adrenaline and fury, looking like he was ready to save his resources for another day.

Indeed, there'll be a return match between the Mets and Yankees in two weeks in the Bronx, although there's no certainty Clemens will pitch -- not since his foot injury required postgame X-rays and left him on day-to-day status.

Still, for anyone hoping for more of Clemens' flesh, it appears the Mets are satisfied. For now, anyway.

"I'd have to say I one-upped Roger today," Estes said, smiling and most definitely enjoying a rare moment when the Mets were, finally, able to rule New York. Even if it's for a day.

Bob Klapisch of The Record (Bergen County, N.J.) covers baseball for ESPN.com.