Green's walk-off homer in 11th lifts Mets   

[June 26, 2007]  NEW YORK (AP) -- Shawn Green hit a leadoff home run in the 11th inning and the New York Mets beat St. Louis 2-1 Monday night in the Cardinals' first visit to Shea Stadium since winning Game 7 of the NL championship series last October.

The Mets won their fourth in a row despite getting only three hits. The NL East leaders have won seven straight regular-season games against St. Louis overall.

Green connected for his seventh homer, sending a full-count pitch from Russ Springer (3-1) off the scoreboard in right-center field. It was the Mets' first hit since Carlos Gomez homered in the third inning.

Aaron Heilman (6-3) pitched one inning for the win. Last fall, he allowed Yadier Molina's ninth-inning homer that gave the Cardinals a 3-1 win and sent them to the World Series.

Minus the playoff drama and much action, the crowd of 40,075 had little to cheer for most of the night. The Mets went seven innings without a hit against St. Louis newcomer Mike Maroth and reliever Ryan Franklin while the banged-up Cardinals had ample soft outs, too.

Traded from Detroit to St. Louis last Friday for a player to be named, Maroth did everything in his NL debut except win.

Maroth quickly introduced himself to catcher Gary Bennett -- gesturing what each of his first eight warmup pitches would be -- and then shut down the Mets on two hits for 7 1-3 innings.

Throwing barely over 80 mph, he got Jose Reyes and others to take several awkward swings. Maroth helped himself by catching a pair of runners leaning the wrong way and picking them off first.

Maroth neatly slapped a single in a bunt situation -- injured teammate David Eckstein offered his bat before the game -- put down a sacrifice bunt and stole his first base in the majors. Maroth also did something equally rare, drawing applause from Mets fans when he exited during a double switch.

Mets starter Jorge Sosa pitched six effective innings against the team he finished up with last year. He spent the final two months with St. Louis as a reliever, was left off the postseason roster and still was rewarded with a World Series ring.

So Taguchi extended his career-high hitting streak to 17 games with a double and also had an RBI grounder that tied it at 1. Adam Kennedy opened the Cardinals fifth with a single off Sosa's leg for his 1,000th major league hit and later scored.

The Cardinals blew a second-and-third, none-out threat in the seventh, set up by Maroth's single and a daring double steal. Reliever Pedro Feliciano escaped the jam, retiring Scott Spiezio on a comebacker.

Missing injured Jim Edmonds, Chris Carpenter, Molina and Eckstein, these Cardinals hardly resembled the club that won at Shea last fall. Of the 25 players on St. Louis' roster for that NLCS, only 12 were active for this series.

"This team is no reflection of last year's team," said star third baseman Scott Rolen, who sat out because of a bruised left foot.

Notes: Green hit his second career game-ending homer. The other came in 2001 with the Dodgers. ... Albert Pujols made two errors at first base. He let loose a wide throw and dropped a low toss. ... RHP Troy Percival could join the Cardinals during the four-game series. Out of the majors since 2005, the former All-Star closer signed a minor league contract with St. Louis this month. ... Mets 1B Carlos Delgado turned 35.

[Associated Press]