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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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GAME LOG
NEW YORK (AP) – For Luis Gonzalez, the plan was to take a day
off, his first day off in two seasons.
|  | | Curt Schilling struck out nine in seven innings on Sunday. |
Instead, it turned out to be another day on for Gonzalez, who
drove in four runs, three of them with his 15th homer, as the
Arizona Diamondbacks defeated the New York Mets 8-2 for Curt
Schilling's fifth straight victory.
Manager Bob Brenly originally told Gonzalez he would have
Sunday off, then decided to rest Reggie Sanders and Mark Grace.
"I thought with giving Reggie and Mark the day off, I'd better
let Gonzo play," he said.
Nobody was happier about that than Gonzalez, the NL Player of
the Month for April, when he hit a record 13 home runs.
"He knows I want to run out there every day," the Arizona
outfielder said. "He's the manager. He's got the final say.
Fortunately, the manager let me run out there again and I was able
to get three hits."
The most damaging was the three-run homer in the third inning
against loser Steve Trachsel (1-5).
Gonzalez connected one pitch after nearly fouling out to end the
inning. His pop fly behind the plate just caught the lip of the
screen as catcher Mike Piazza waited for it to come down. That kept
the at-bat alive, and Gonzalez hit the next pitch 423 feet for a
3-0 Arizona lead.
"I got a good pitch to hit, a mistake pitch," Gonzalez said.
"The way the wind was blowing, I didn't think anything would go
out. I was fortunate I hit it on a line."
The Mets thought they had him one pitch earlier. But the wind
blew his foul pop just enough that it scraped the screen.
"The wind blowing took it to the tip of the net," Gonzalez
said. "That's the nature of the game."
Said Piazza: "We got him to foul off a pretty good pitch the
pitch before."
Then, Gonzalez said, Trachsel made a mistake.
"At this level, he's going to take advantage of a pitch like
that," Piazza said. "We just left it in the middle. It wasn't
quite where we wanted it."
Gonzalez gave Schilling an early edge. The righthander (5-0)
allowed eight hits over seven innings, walked one and struck out
nine, pushing his career total to 1,800.
"I'm off to my best start because we're scoring runs,"
Schilling said. "It's not how you pitch, it's when."
In the seventh, Gonzalez's third hit of the game drove in Jay
Bell, who had doubled. The four RBIs gave Gonzalez an NL-leading
34, one more than Colorado's Larry Walker.
Gonzalez still wonders about all those homers.
"If you told me I'd have 15 homers and four doubles in May, I'd
tell you you were nuts," he said. "I'll take them because they
keep producing RBI and big runs."
Robin Ventura hit his fifth homer of the season for New York in
the fourth, but Arizona's David Dellucci got that run back in the
sixth with his third homer, a 405-foot shot to right center.
In the sixth, Ventura doubled with two out and scored on Todd
Zeile's single. But Schilling struck out Tsuyoshi Shinjo, who had
two hits, to end the inning.
Then the Diamondbacks bunched doubles by Bell, Eurbiel Durazo
and Steve Finley around Gonzalez's third hit in a four-run seventh
against reliever Tom Martin.
Game notes
Piazza returned to the Mets lineup after missing two games
with a bruised right hand. ... Al Leiter, eligible to come off the
disabled list Sunday, threw for eight minutes in the bullpen and
experienced no discomfort in his elbow. He will take Monday off and
may start in San Francisco later this week. ... Bell came into the
game leading the majors with a .524 batting average with runners in
scoring position. With a runner on third in the third inning, he
walked in front of the home run by Gonzalez.
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OTHER GAMES
Baseball Scoreboard
Arizona Clubhouse
NY Mets Clubhouse
RECAPS
Cleveland 10
Tampa Bay 3
NY Yankees 2
Baltimore 1
Minnesota 4
Kansas City 2
Chi. White Sox 10
Texas 5
Anaheim 3
Detroit 2
Toronto 11
Seattle 3
Boston 5
Oakland 4
Atlanta 7
St. Louis 5
Florida 5
Milwaukee 1
Arizona 8
NY Mets 2
San Diego 8
Cincinnati 2
Houston 13
Montreal 7
Philadelphia 10
San Francisco 8
Pittsburgh 4
Colorado 3
Chicago Cubs 3
Los Angeles 2
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