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  Tuesday, Jul. 25 7:10pm ET
Piazza finishes 3-for-4 in Mets' win
 
  RECAP | BOX SCORE | GAME LOG

NEW YORK (AP) -- Glendon Rusch finally got a few breaks.

Rusch, who has pitched in tough luck much of the year, allowed just three hits in seven scoreless innings as the New York Mets beat the Montreal Expos 5-0 Tuesday night.

"I don't feel like I made a lot of great pitches. I got away with some things," Rusch said. "I always said earlier in the year that it evens out throughout the course of the season, and you have to believe that."

Glendon Rusch
Good things happen to the Mets when Glendon Rusch is on the mound. New York is 9-3 in his last 12 outings.

Rusch (7-7) struck out the side in the first inning but did not have great command. He walked four and loaded the bases with no outs in the fifth on two walks and a single.

Still, he escaped unscathed as Jose Vidro grounded into a force play at the plate, and Geoff Blum hit a soft liner to shortstop Melvin Mora that turned into an inning-ending double play.

"That was a big sigh of relief," Rusch said.

The Mets are 9-3 in Rusch's last 12 outings, and he has allowed three runs or less in 13 of his 18 starts. But the victory was the left-hander's first in five starts since June 27.

"He deserves that. He deserves to be able to get some breaks," Mets manager Bobby Valentine said. "And it's another step forward to be able to go out and win without his best stuff."

Mike Piazza, playing at Shea Stadium for the first time since being beaned by a Roger Clemens fastball July 8, had three hits and two RBI.

He received a warm ovation and delivered an RBI single in the first inning to give the Mets the only run they would need.

He drove in another run with a fifth-inning single, and also singled in the third. He finished 3-for-4 as the Mets returned home from an 11-game road trip that began right after the All-Star break.

Montreal had its four-game winning streak snapped.

"In the fifth inning, we had our shot there. But we didn't make much of it," Montreal manager Felipe Alou said.

Rusch contributed at the plate, too. He had a sacrifice bunt as New York took a 2-0 lead in the second, and drew a 10-pitch walk from Dustin Hermanson (8-8) that ignited a two-run rally in the fourth.

Two hits and one out later, Rusch scored on Piazza's single, and Todd Zeile followed with a bases-loaded walk that made it 4-0.

"That really was a great at-bat for an .033 hitter, maybe the best at-bat of his career," Valentine said, laughing. "Call it a hunch."

Hermanson, who gave up just one run in 8 2/3 innings of a victory over the Mets last Thursday, allowed four runs, nine hits and four walks in four innings, matching his shortest start this season.

"I got behind a lot of hitters and I threw a lot of pitches," he said. "I thought I made some very good pitches tonight that they hit. It seemed like every ball we hit went to somebody, but balls they hit found holes."

Mora, who set up Lenny Harris' RBI groundout with a beautiful bunt single in the second, added a two-out, RBI double off Guillermo Mota in the seventh.

Game notes
Mets manager Bobby Valentine tied Gil Hodges for second on the club's career list with 339 victories. ... All-Star 2B Edgardo Alfonzo was back in the Mets lineup after missing a three-game weekend series at Atlanta with a hip injury. ... Expos RF Vladimir Guerrero returned to the lineup and went 1-for-4 after missing four starts with a hip injury. ... Blum, who had homered in three straight games, went 0-for-4. He flied out to the left-field wall in the third. ... Montreal RHP Hideki Irabu is scheduled to come off the DL on Wednesday and make his first start since May 26. He had surgery on his right knee to remove torn cartilage. It will be Irabu's first start in New York since being traded by the Yankees last winter. ... The Expos optioned RHP Guillermo Mota to Triple-A Ottawa after the game.
 


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