Gooden Strikes Out 10 Cubs in 13-2 Rout : Hernandez Gets Two Home Runs as Mets Pound Out 19 Hits

Dwight Gooden, backed by his team’s biggest offensive show of the season, Wednesday breezed to his second straight impressive outing since returning from drug rehabilitation.

Gooden scattered eight hits over eight innings and his teammates collected 19 hits in a 13-2 victory over the Cubs. Gooden, who scored a 5-1 victory over Pittsburgh in his 1987 debut last Friday, struck out 10 and walked none by blending his curveball and fastball to baffle Cub hitters.

“Getting the lead made it easier,” said Gooden, who also contributed a single and a run-batted in in snapping the Mets’ three-game losing streak. “I felt good. The breaking ball was getting over and that helped.”

Keith Hernandez, who shaved his moustache for the first time since 1978, came through with a pair of homers and Gary Carter and Kevin McReynolds added four hits apiece for the Mets.

“Doc was better than he was Friday night,” Carter said. “You’ve got to remember that this was his second game of the season. He threw very well.”

Mets’ manager Davey Johnson pulled Gooden after the right-hander threw 120 pitches and had given up a solo homer to Shawon Dunston in the seventh and a RBI triple by Brian Dayett in the eighth.

“If the game had been closer, he’s still in there in the ninth,” Johnson said. “I thought Doc threw well. He got his breaking ball over and he was strong.”

“I was getting tired. I told (pitching coach) Mel (Stottlemyre) to let me finish the eighth,” Gooden explained.

Cubs’ Manager Gene Michael said Gooden didn’t seem to be throwing as hard as he remembered.

“His velocity didn’t seem to be as high. How many of those strikeouts were on fastballs?” Michael said. “He seemed hittable.”

Dunston said Gooden looked as tough as ever.

“To me, he’s still the best. You don’t know whether he’s going to throw the curve or fastball,” said Dunston, whose homer to left was his fifth of the year.

Hernandez, whose two-homer game was the second of his career and first as a Met, called the Mets’ offensive burst overdue.

“The two balls I hit were really tagged, even against the wind, but remember, this is Wrigley Field,” Hernandez said. “Doc was super out there. He threw very well. He gave us a lift.”

Scott Sanderson, 3-3, absorbed most of the New York assault, yielding eight runs and nine hits over 2O innings.

“Everything he threw today was up,” Michael said. “Too many good pitches to hit up in the strike zone.”

Hernandez snapped an 0-for-9 streak against the Cubs with a two-run homer and added a solo shot in the sixth. Carter led off the five-run second with a homer, singled and scored on Tim Teufel’s three-run homer in the third and doubled and scored in the fourth on a RBI single by McReynolds.

After Carter’s homer in the second, McReynolds doubled to left and, one out later, went to third on Teufel’s infield single. Rafael Santana followed with a double to center, scoring McReynolds. Gooden’s infield grounder scored Teufel.

In the third, Mookie Wilson lined a triple to left and scored on a home run by Hernandez. Carter followed with a single and one out later went to second on Howard Johnson’s single. Teufel followed with his third homer of the year to give the Mets an 8-0 lead.

After McReynolds’ RBI single made it 9-0 in the fourth, Hernandez hit a solo homer to right on a 2-2 pitch in the sixth for his seventh homer of the season.

New York scored again in the seventh when McReynolds led off with a double and Johnson singled and both scored on Santana’s one-out, two-run single. The Mets added a run in the ninth on an RBI single by Mookie Wilson.