Wright homers twice, Mets beat Torre's Dodgers 8-4

[May 30, 2008]  NEW YORK (AP) -- David Wright hit two more home runs off Brad Penny and the newly inspired New York Mets dampened Joe Torre's return home, defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers 8-4 Thursday night.

A rare catcher's interference call helped the Mets win their third in a row and send the Dodgers to their fourth straight loss.

Always popular in town, Torre managed his first game in New York since parting ways with the Yankees last October. Many fans in the crowd of 52,886 at Shea Stadium stood and cheered when he made a pitching change in the seventh inning, and Torre waved and doffed his cap while walking back to the dugout.

Wright drew two big ovations for his first multihomer game of the season and eighth of his career. He picked on a familiar victim, improving to 11-for-19 (.579) with four home runs and five walks against Penny (5-6).

Penny's problems at Shea continued as he fell to 1-10 lifetime at the ballpark that's in its final year. The two-time All-Star didn't fare any better against the Mets three weeks ago at home when they tagged him for a career-high 10 runs in 4 2-3 innings.

Wright launched a drive into the left-center bleachers for a two-run homer in the third. His next home run, coming on another 93 mph fastball from Penny, capped an unlikely four-run burst in the fourth.

The Mets had two outs and none on in the fourth when pitcher Claudio Vargas apparently grounded out -- it looked so routine, Vargas basically stopped running halfway down the line.

But Russell Martin was called for catcher's interference and Vargas was awarded first base. The Mets took full advantage as Jose Reyes followed with a single, Luis Castillo hit an RBI double and Wright connected for his 11th homer and a 6-0 lead.

Jeff Kent and Blake DeWitt homered in the fifth inning, pulling the Dodgers within 6-3. Vargas (2-2) left in the sixth and James Loney met reliever Pedro Feliciano with an RBI single.

That was all for the Dodgers, who have lost six of seven and scored only 12 runs in that span.

Endy Chavez and Brian Schneider hit RBI singles in the Mets seventh. Fooled on an outside pitch, Chavez threw his bat at the ball and wound up hitting a soft liner off reliever Joe Beimel's glove.

Juan Pierre led off the game with a single and quickly stole his 20th base, but little else went right for the Dodgers sparkplug.

Pierre was thrown out by Chavez trying to score on a fly ball in the first, neatly blocked off the plate by Schneider. The next time up, Pierre tossed aside his bat when he thought he'd walked on a close 3-1 pitch -- umpire Bill Welke called it a strike and Pierre wound up flying out. Later, Pierre made a wild throw from left field that let a run score.

Notes: Reyes singled twice and has now reached base in 29 straight games. ... Wright grounded out and struck out in his final two at-bats. No Mets player has hit three home runs in a game at Shea. ... Dodgers reliever Hong-Chih Kuo was called for a ball when he went to the mouth while on the mound. ... Martin was charged with an error for the catcher's interference that let Vargas reach, yet the runs that scored after the two-out play were officially earned. According to scoring rules, it couldn't be assumed that Vargas would've made the third out.

[Associated Press; By BEN WALKER]

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