Sports

TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT: METS PEN NEARLY FOILS HAMPTON’S FIFTH WIN

Mets 8 D-backs 7

Leave it to the Mets to turn the easy into the difficult, to put drama into the mundane, to turn another brilliant Mike Hampton start (and an eight-run lead) into a nail-biter.

The Amazin’s barely outlasted the Diamondbacks 8-7 at Shea yesterday in a game that their leaky bullpen turned from a slaughter to squeaker in just two innings.

After a 3½-hour rain delay chased most of the original crowd of 37,121, Hampton (5-4) had his third straight dominant performance, pitching six shutout innings. But he pulled a muscle in his back sliding into third during the Mets’ five-run fourth, and left two innings later ahead 6-0.

The Amazin’s pushed the lead to 8-0 – but then their bullpen nearly gave it all back.

Pat Mahomes, who injured his ankle on the first pitch he threw, gave up two runs in the eighth inning.

Then Rich Rodriguez and John Franco (who sprained his right ankle covering first) gave up five more in the ninth before closer Armando Benitez was pressed into service to strike out pinch-hitter Erubiel Durazo with the tying run on second.

“It was a long day,” Met manager Bobby Valentine said. “It got scary at the end, but that’s the way baseball is. They’re a good team. They came back. We’re a good team. We got the win.

“[Hampton] pitched the way he can pitch, threw strikes, got hits, ran the bases. Mike did a terrific job. He was taking control of the game.”

That he did. He gave up just four hits and walked one. He even delivered a two-run single in that five-run fourth. In his last three starts, he’s walked just two, fanned 17 and has given up a single run in his last 23 1/3 innings, for a sterling 0.39 ERA in that stretch.

“I honestly didn’t sweat too much,” said Hampton, who’s lowered his overall ERA from 6.52 to 4.21.

“I have confidence in my teammates. It was a lot closer than we wanted, but I know the guys put everything they had on the line. I’ve just started to relax and trust my stuff. I put a lot of pressure on myself to come in and have an impact. I just had to take a step back and do what I do, stop trying to impress everyone – just pitch and try to help you team win. ”

He added his back is “OK.”

“I’m a little sore,” he said. “I’m not anticipating I’ll miss any action. When I slid into third I popped up looking for the ball, and I tweaked it a little bit. It’s nothing too major. We got out to a 6-0 lead, and I didn’t want to take a chance on hurting it worse and missing a start.”

The Mets have won three straight for the first time since their nine-game win streak ended on April 25. Arizona has lost four straight at Shea, including the last two in last year’s NLDS.

And yesterday the Mets jumped all over Arizona’s Omar Daal (1-5), who gave up six runs – four earned – in 3 1/3 innings.

The D-backs committed a team-record four errors, the first of which set up Derek Bell’s third-inning RBI, and the Mets chased Daal with five the next inning.

With one out, Benny Agbayani, Jay Payton and Rey Ordonez hit consecutive singles and Hampton stroked a 1-1 pitch to center for his two-run single.

Joe McEwing reached on an error by second baseman Jay Bell, allowing another run to score and sending Hampton to third with his ill-fated slide.

Bell added another RBI single to center to chase Daal, and Edgardo Alfonzo added a sac fly for a 6-0 lead.

After Hampton left the game, Alfonzo added a two-run homer in the sixth for an 8-0 lead.

But Arizona almost came all the way back. Greg Colbrunn’s two-run homer in the eighth off Mahomes started the rally. And in the ninth Rodriguez gave up runs on a double by Travis Lee and a single by Tony Womack.

Franco entered an 8-4 game and gave up three straight singles – spraining his ankle covering on Andy Fox’ infield single – to cut the lead to 8-7 before Benitez came on and caught Durazo looking to end the drama.

“You have to be ready for anything in the bullpen,” Benitez said. “Any time, any moment, every day.”