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GAME LOG
NEW YORK (AP) – The New York Mets must be struggling at the
plate when Rey Ordonez is coming up with all their big hits.
|  | | Mets catcher Mike Piazza stroked two hits and was walked twice. |
Ordonez hit a two-run single and Mike Piazza reached base all
four times as the Mets got just enough offense to beat the Montreal
Expos 4-3 Monday night.
"That was a huge hit for us," starter Rick Reed said of
Ordonez's third-inning single that made it 4-0. "In the past week,
Rey has come up with some pretty big hits."
The Mets, who entered last in the NL with 36 runs, had lost four
of five games. The only win came Thursday when Ordonez's RBI single
in the 10th inning helped the Mets beat Atlanta 1-0.
After driving in only nine runs in 45 games last season, Ordonez
is tied for second on the Mets with seven RBIs in 13 games this
year.
"His at-bats are consistently good," manager Bobby Valentine
said. "He hit a line drive to left field and sprayed the ball
around. He's a regular hitter. That's what we need him to be."
New York squandered many opportunities again Monday -- stranding
nine runners in the first six innings -- but gave Reed (2-1) enough
support. Reed allowed three runs and seven hits in seven innings,
but fell short of becoming the first pitcher since Shane Rawley in
1983 to open the season with three straight complete games.
The Mets didn't hold a lead once in getting swept over the
weekend by Cincinnati, but that quickly changed in the first
inning, when Darryl Hamilton led off with a double and scored on
Piazza's double.
New York added three more runs in the third inning off Mike
Thurman (1-2) and held on after the Expos closed within one run in
the fifth.
"We knew it was bound to happen soon," Reed said of the Mets'
offense. "I just didn't want to be the guy to go out there and
blow it."
John Franco pitched a scoreless eighth and Armando Benitez
pitched the ninth for his second save.
The Mets, who are hitting .223, didn't have a hit in 4 2/3
innings against Montreal's bullpen.
"I still thought we had a couple of other chances to score, but
we didn't get the hits we needed," Hamilton said.
Piazza, who went 2-for-2 with two walks, got the Mets started in
the third with a one-out single. After a walk to Robin Ventura,
Todd Zeile hit an RBI single for his first hit in 10 at-bats with
runners in scoring position this season.
Jay Payton was hit by a pitch, loading the bases, and one out
later, Ordonez reached out and lined a soft single into right field
to make it 4-0.
"Sometimes it's easier to concentrate when there are runners in
scoring position," Ordonez said. "But you have to be able to hit
other times too because you bat more times with on one on base."
The Expos scored one run in the fourth when Fernando Tatis
doubled and scored on Lee Stevens' groundout. They missed an
opportunity for more when Vladimir Guerrero was thrown out easily
at second base when Zeile cut off the throw home on Guerrero's
single to center.
"He misread that throw," manager Felipe Alou said. "He's a
hyper-aggressive guy. He's won a couple of games for us with plays
like that. But I knew one of these days it was going to catch up to
him and it did."
Orlando Cabrera had an RBI double and Jose Vidro hit a
run-scoring groundout in the fifth.
Thurman allowed four runs and seven hits in 3 1-3 innings to
fall to 2-4 with a 10.00 ERA in 10 appearances against the Mets.
"I know I don't pitch well here," Thurman said. "It just
wasn't my day. I don't have much to say other than that."
Game notes
Expos LF Milton Bradley was ejected in the fourth for
arguing a called third strike with plate umpire Terry Craft. ...
The only Mets to throw complete games in his first three starts of
the year are Nolan Ryan (1970) and Jerry Koosman (1968.) ... Reed
has 14 strikeouts and zero walks in 25 innings. ... The Mets are
7-for-40 with runners in scoring position the last four games.
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RECAPS
Boston 4
NY Yankees 1
Baltimore 6
Tampa Bay 2
Kansas City 5
Minnesota 3
Oakland 6
Anaheim 3
Seattle 9
Texas 7
Pittsburgh 3
Houston 0
NY Mets 4
Montreal 3
Atlanta 4
Florida 3
Philadelphia 0
Chicago Cubs 0
Arizona 2
St. Louis 1
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