Los Angeles, CA - Chip Ambres hit a two-out RBI single in the 10th inning to give New York the lead, as the Mets rallied late to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-4, in the finale of a four-game set.
Nomar Garciaparra’s two-run homer in the sixth inning gave Los Angeles a 4-2 lead, but the Mets scored a run each in the eighth and ninth to send the game into extra innings.
Jose Reyes led off the eighth with a double, went to third on a groundout and scored on Carlos Beltran’s sacrifice fly to bring New York within 4-3.
Jonathan Broxton then struggled in the ninth and the Mets took advantage of a Matt Kemp error to tie the game. Carlos Delgado greeted Broxton with a single and a Broxton wild pitch allowed pinch-runner Anderson Hernandez to reach second.
After Paul Lo Duca’s groundout sent Hernandez to third, Kemp dropped Shawn Green’s fly ball to shallow right field, allowing to Hernandez to cross home plate and Green to reach second.
Broxton then uncorked his second wild pitch of the inning to send Green to third before recovering to striking out Ruben Gotay and pinch-hitter Ramon Castro to avoid further damage.
However, New York went right back to work in the 10th as Lastings Milledge and Beltran hit back-to-back one-out singles off D. J. Houlton (0-1). Then, after David Wright grounded into a force out to put runners, Ambres came through with a run-scoring single to left — his first base-hit since October 2, 2005 with the Kansas City Royals.
“That’s one I’ll always remember,” said Ambres, who was recalled from Triple- A New Orleans on Wednesday. “I just tried to get a ball I could hit. It’s the best feeling in the world when your teammates are congratulating you.”
Los Angeles threatened in the bottom of the 10th as Juan Pierre led off with a walk before swiping second. Billy Wagner struck out Russell Martin and intentionally walked Jeff Kent before he caught Kemp looking at a called third strike.
A wild pitch moved the runners over a base, but Wagner struck out Garciaparra to nail down his 22nd save of the season.
Reyes finished 3-for-5 with a triple and two runs scored and Pedro Feliciano (2-1) pitched a scoreless inning of relief to pick up the win for the Mets, who took three of four against LA.
“Everybody contributed,” said Mets manager Willie Randolph. “It was a fun game to manage and we wanted it really bad. We did the right thing at the right time.”
Rafael Furcal homered and Luis Gonzalez scored twice for the Dodgers, who have lost four of six after a five-game winning streak.
Furcal led off the game with his third homer of the season and James Loney’s two-out RBI double in the fourth made it 2-0.
LA starter Eric Stults, meanwhile, retired 10 straight batters until Lo Duca led off the fifth with a single. Stults quickly erased Lo Duca with a double play groundout, but the left-hander ran into trouble in the sixth as New York tied the game.
After Mets starter Orlando Hernandez struck out, Reyes legged out his 10th triple of the year before scoring on Milledge’s double.
Rudy Seanez took over for Stults and Wright’s two-out RBI single made it 2-2. The Dodgers answered in the home half of the sixth as Gonzalez walked with one out and Garciaparra crushed the first pitch he saw over the left field wall.
Stults pitched 5 1/3 innings in just his third career start, yielding two runs on five hits with five strikeouts and no walks. Hernandez, on the other hand, was tagged for four runs on seven hits through six innings.
Game Notes
Stults made his first career start against the Mets last September and picked up the win after pitching six innings of one-run ball…Pierre went hitless in four at-bats and saw his 14-game hitting streak come to an end.
