Sports

BOONE BLASTS OFF ON METS: BRET’S TWO HOMERS HELP PODS PREVAIL

Padres 5 Mets 4

SAN DIEGO – After last night’s 5-4 loss to the last-place Padres, Bobby Valentine said nothing surprises him in baseball. But one fact has to disappoint the Mets’ manager, whose team has championship aspirations.

For the second time this season, the sad-sack Padres took two-of-three from the Mets. They did it at Shea at the beginning of April in the Mets’ first three home games. And they did it again last night thanks to former Brave Bret Boone.

With the game tied at four in the eighth, Boone went deep to lead off the inning, connecting on a 3-2 fastball from Pat Mahomes.

Mahomes (1-1) took his first loss since June 8, 1996. It ends a 12-game winning streak, which was the longest among active pitchers.

“[Mike Piazza] called for a fastball away,” Mahomes said. “Normally, I would throw it inside, but he called for one away and I just didn’t get it out there. I wanted to elevate it a little more.”

Boone elevated it for his second dinger of the game. Mahomes had thrown a fastball past Boone on a 3-1 pitch and then he went back to it.

“Everybody in the park should know what is coming,” Mahomes said.

The 19,405 on hand on another overcast night at Qualcomm Stadium know now that the Padres have beaten the Mets two out of three.

They know that the Mets wasted another clutch home run by Edgardo Alfonzo, who tied the game at four by knocking a solo shot off righty Carlos Almanzar in the top of the seventh. Alfonzo had earlier extended his hitting streak to 10 games with a single.

Donne Wall (1-2) got the win in relief, while Trevor Hoffman – a day after giving up a game-winning homer to Piazza – worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his ninth save.

The Mets have today to think about this series and then start a three-game set in St. Louis tomorrow. This is all part of a nine-game, 10-day road trip that has the Mets returning to California to play the Dodgers after St. Louis.

The two starters’ numbers’ last night were OK in this day and age of baseball. The Mets’ No. 4 starter Fresno Bobby Jones – pitching in front of his parents, his wife and kids – went five innings, giving up four runs (all in the second) on nine hits. Although his line was not tremendous, he did well to just have the one bad inning because he pitched in trouble all night.

Jones – who made his second start since coming off the disabled list – gave up back-to-back homers to former Brave Ryan Klesko (a two-run shot) and Boone in the second.

“I thought I made a bad pitch to Klesko and a stupid pitch to Boone,” said Jones, who added he felt he had better stuff than he had all season.

Former Yankee prospect Ruben Rivera extended the lead to 4-0 with an opposite-field double.

The Mets chopped the lead to 4-2 with two runs in the fourth. Robin Ventura provided the big hit, an RBI double.

The Mets pulled to within a run by scoring one in the top of the sixth to make it 4-3. They loaded the bases with two outs against Meadows and then Valentine lifted shortstop Rey Ordonez – who is hitting .187 – for Matt Franco

“No, probably not,” said Valentine when asked if lifting Ordonez’s bat early will become the norm. “It was a probably unique situation.”

Last season, Franco set a major league record with 20 walks as a pinch-hitter. Apparently, the mere sight of the Mets’ No. 15 induces pitches into throwing wildly. He walked on four pitches to force in a run and make it 4-3, but Kurt Abbott grounded out to end the inning.

Padres starter Brian Meadows went 52/3 innings and gave up three runs, two earned on six hits. Meadows was also not greatly aided by his relief.

Valentine’s mentioned how important Jones is to his team. He didn’t have to because simple math will tell you that Jones’ No. 4 spot in the rotation will make at least 30 starts out of the Mets’ 162 games. That’s 18.5 percent.

The No. 4 spot in the rotation – with Jones making only three of the starts due his right calf injury – entered last night with three wins in nine starts. It needs to be at least at .500.