Saturday, September 11, 1999
Dodgers 3, Mets 1
LOS ANGELES — Darren Dreifort used to have a problem pitching into the late innings. Not anymore.
Dreifort pitched eight strong innings and Raul Mondesi homered as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the New York Mets 3-1 Friday night.
Dreifort (13-13) went at least seven innings for the fifth straight time, after doing it only twice in his first 24 starts.
“He's just going after hitters like a starting pitcher should do,” Dodgers manager Davey Johnson said. “He's not overthrowing every pitch, trying to make it unhittable. He's in a nice rhythm and he's throwing a lot more strikes because of it.”
Dreifort gave up one run and four hits, walked two and struck out six, including the side in the third inning.
“I don't see any difference between him and Kevin Brown,” said Matt Franco, who drove in New York's run with a pinch double in the eighth. “He's got great stuff. I don't understand why his numbers are what they are.”
Jeff Shaw got three outs for his 32nd save, helping the Dodgers end a four-game losing streak and improve their record against the Mets this season to 4-2.
“We've played very, very well against them,” Shaw said. “We've gotten some good starting pitching and timely hitting.”
New York threatened in the ninth on Darryl Hamilton's one-out single and a two-out infield hit by pinch-hitter Shawon Dunston. But Bobby Bonilla, who swung at the first pitch in his previous pinch-hitting appearance, did it again and grounded out to second to end the game.
“Ever since I've been a rookie in this league, he's swung very early against me,” Shaw said. “He's gotten me a couple of times on first-pitch fastballs that I mislocated, and he hit home runs. So I just wanted to keep the ball down and away on him.”
The Mets fell four games behind first-place Atlanta in the NL East, and their wild-card lead over Cincinnati was cut to 21/2 games.
Mets starter Al Leiter (11-10) gave up two runs and three hits over six innings before he was lifted for a pinch-hitter. The left-hander, who was named NL pitcher of the month for July after going 5-0 with a 2.62 ERA, is 4-5 with a 3.38 ERA in 13 starts since then.
“Al's gone out there and given us a chance to win every time out,” manager Bobby Valentine said. “If we didn't run up against a buzzsaw on the other side, I'm sure we could have scored enough runs to give him a cushion and give him a win.”
The Dodgers needed only one hit to manufacture their first two runs, both of which came on sacrifice flies. Eric Young drew a leadoff walk in the first, advanced on a fielder's choice, stole third and scored on Gary Sheffield's fly to the warning track in left.
Devon White led off the fifth with a double, was sacrificed to third by Adrian Beltre and came home on Paul LoDuca's fly to right-center.
The Mets closed to 2-1 in the seventh on doubles by Roger Cedeno and Franco, who batted for Leiter. But Mondesi got the run back in the bottom half with a leadoff homer against Billy Taylor. Mondesi's 29th of the season came one pitch after he fouled a ball hard enough off his left foot to require attention from assistant trainer Stan Johnston.
The Mets got only one other runner as far as third, after Dreifort gave up a one-out single in the fifth inning by Cedeno and walked Rey Ordonez. Leiter advanced both runners with a sacrifice, but Ricky Henderson struck out on a checked swing.
“He probably threw the best ball game he's thrown all year,” Shaw said. “There's usually one inning where he loses his stuff, but he never lost his stuff tonight.”
NOTES: The first five hitters in the Mets' lineup went 0-for-18 with a walk against Dreifort. ... Mondesi, the only Dodger ever with 30 homers and 30 stolen bases in a season, needs one more homer and three more steals to accomplish the feat for the second time in three seasons. ... The national anthem was sung by actress Bobbie Eakes, who plays Macy Spectra on the CBS soap opera “The Bold And the Beautiful.” Mets catcher Mike Piazza made a cameo appearance on the show when he was with the Dodgers. ... John Olerud drew his 114th walk of the season in the fourth inning, matching the career high he established in 1993 with Toronto.
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