LOS ANGELES -- Things change in baseball, as was pretty apparent at Dodger Stadium Friday night.
Mike Piazza, the most popular Dodger of the 1990s, was lustily booed prior to each at-bat as a New York Met, then jeered as he struck out twice and grounded into two double plays.
Meanwhile, Eric Gagne, the idol of the moment for Dodger fans, continued his record assault by locking up the Dodgers' 2-1 win over Piazza and the Mets for winning starter Hideo Nomo.
Gagne struck out two of the three batters he faced recording his 43rd consecutive save, tying the Major League record for a single season. He has 115 strikeouts in 67 innings.
The victory, combined with Arizona's loss to the Cubs, moved the Dodgers into third in the Wild Card standings, three games behind Philadelphia and 1 1/2 games behind Florida. The Dodgers have won five of their last six and 13 of their last 18.
"We're playing really good baseball," said Gagne. "We're confident, we're getting the big hits. We're doing what we need to do to win, we don't make mistakes and the pitching is good."
Nomo, cast aside by both teams during his career, allowed a solo homer to Ty Wigginton over seven innings and nothing more to raise his record to 15-9, the second-highest victory total in the league and one shy of his career high. He is 6-1 with a 1.88 ERA in his last eight starts.
"I don't really care about my statistics," said Nomo, who also leads the league with 190 1/3 innings. "All I care about is to pitch a game that the team can win and so we can make the playoffs at the end. I don't think about myself, I think about contributing to the team."
Offensively, the Dodgers scored both runs in the fourth inning off loser Al Leiter, with Jolbert Cabrera's double keying the rally. Ron Coomer hit a sacrifice fly and Cesar Izturis had an RBI single as the Dodger lineup was missing injured outfielders Shawn Green and Jeromy Burnitz.
"Everybody loves driving in runs," said Izturis, who knocked in both runs Thursday and has 30, one short of his career high.
Defensively, the Dodgers turned three double plays. Catcher Paul Lo Duca threw out two of New York's four attempted base stealers, including pinch-runner Vance Wilson in the ninth inning.
Lo Duca also led off the winning rally with a single and one out later was doubled to third by Cabrera. Mike Kinkade was walked intentionally and Coomer hit the first pitch to center deep enough for Lo Duca to score and Cabrera to take third. Izturis flared a hanging breaking ball to right field, scoring Cabrera with Kinkade taking third.
"Everybody is playing more relaxed," said Cabrera
The only Mets run off Nomo was Wigginton's home run leading off the seventh. It was Wigginton's second career home run off Nomo.
Nomo had to pitch out of a jam almost as soon as the game started. With runners on the corners and one out, he struck out Piazza and caught Jason Phillips looking.
In the third, a one-out throwing error by Adrian Beltre, a stolen base by Roger Cedeno and a walk to Jose Reyes forced Nomo to get Timo Perez on a fly out and fan Piazza on a splitter in the dirt to keep the game scoreless.
"He threw well tonight, as well as I've seen him throw since his first couple of years here," said Piazza, who caught Nomo with the Dodgers and Mets. "He had good downward action on his splitter. I was impressed. I only got one good swing off him all night."
Leiter wound up in a mess in the bottom of the third after Coomer led off with a single and was erased at second on Izturis' fielder's choice grounder. Nomo bunted and third baseman Wigginton was all over the ball, but his throw to second base caught shortstop Reyes unprepared. He wasn't close enough to step on the bag and his throw to first was too late to get Nomo.
The Dodgers countered with a mistake of their own. Izturis took off on a 2-2 pitch, but apparently thought the count to Rickey Henderson was full, because with the pitch a ball he coasted into third and was easily thrown out by Piazza. Henderson then walked, but Dave Roberts' fly to center was run down by Jeff Duncan.
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Mike Piazza, the most popular Dodger of the 1990s, was lustily booed prior to each at-bat as a New York Met, then jeered as he struck out twice and grounded into two double plays.
Meanwhile, Eric Gagne, the idol of the moment for Dodger fans, continued his record assault by locking up the Dodgers' 2-1 win over Piazza and the Mets for winning starter Hideo Nomo.
Gagne struck out two of the three batters he faced recording his 43rd consecutive save, tying the Major League record for a single season. He has 115 strikeouts in 67 innings.
The victory, combined with Arizona's loss to the Cubs, moved the Dodgers into third in the Wild Card standings, three games behind Philadelphia and 1 1/2 games behind Florida. The Dodgers have won five of their last six and 13 of their last 18.
"We're playing really good baseball," said Gagne. "We're confident, we're getting the big hits. We're doing what we need to do to win, we don't make mistakes and the pitching is good."
Nomo, cast aside by both teams during his career, allowed a solo homer to Ty Wigginton over seven innings and nothing more to raise his record to 15-9, the second-highest victory total in the league and one shy of his career high. He is 6-1 with a 1.88 ERA in his last eight starts.
"I don't really care about my statistics," said Nomo, who also leads the league with 190 1/3 innings. "All I care about is to pitch a game that the team can win and so we can make the playoffs at the end. I don't think about myself, I think about contributing to the team."
Offensively, the Dodgers scored both runs in the fourth inning off loser Al Leiter, with Jolbert Cabrera's double keying the rally. Ron Coomer hit a sacrifice fly and Cesar Izturis had an RBI single as the Dodger lineup was missing injured outfielders Shawn Green and Jeromy Burnitz.
"Everybody loves driving in runs," said Izturis, who knocked in both runs Thursday and has 30, one short of his career high.
Defensively, the Dodgers turned three double plays. Catcher Paul Lo Duca threw out two of New York's four attempted base stealers, including pinch-runner Vance Wilson in the ninth inning.
Lo Duca also led off the winning rally with a single and one out later was doubled to third by Cabrera. Mike Kinkade was walked intentionally and Coomer hit the first pitch to center deep enough for Lo Duca to score and Cabrera to take third. Izturis flared a hanging breaking ball to right field, scoring Cabrera with Kinkade taking third.
"Everybody is playing more relaxed," said Cabrera
The only Mets run off Nomo was Wigginton's home run leading off the seventh. It was Wigginton's second career home run off Nomo.
Nomo had to pitch out of a jam almost as soon as the game started. With runners on the corners and one out, he struck out Piazza and caught Jason Phillips looking.
In the third, a one-out throwing error by Adrian Beltre, a stolen base by Roger Cedeno and a walk to Jose Reyes forced Nomo to get Timo Perez on a fly out and fan Piazza on a splitter in the dirt to keep the game scoreless.
"He threw well tonight, as well as I've seen him throw since his first couple of years here," said Piazza, who caught Nomo with the Dodgers and Mets. "He had good downward action on his splitter. I was impressed. I only got one good swing off him all night."
Leiter wound up in a mess in the bottom of the third after Coomer led off with a single and was erased at second on Izturis' fielder's choice grounder. Nomo bunted and third baseman Wigginton was all over the ball, but his throw to second base caught shortstop Reyes unprepared. He wasn't close enough to step on the bag and his throw to first was too late to get Nomo.
The Dodgers countered with a mistake of their own. Izturis took off on a 2-2 pitch, but apparently thought the count to Rickey Henderson was full, because with the pitch a ball he coasted into third and was easily thrown out by Piazza. Henderson then walked, but Dave Roberts' fly to center was run down by Jeff Duncan.
http://losangeles.dodgers.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/la/news/la_gameday_recap.jsp?ymd=20030823&content_id=494192&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=lan
