Gwynn’s Hits Send the Mets to Double Dip

And New York still has six doubleheaders to play.

The rain-plagued Mets were Tony Gwynn-plagued Thursday in San Diego, where he picked on them and left-hander Dennis Cook in both games of a doubleheader.

“He just got me today,” said Cook, who lost the first game, 3-1, and gave up a game-tying hit to Gwynn in the seventh inning.

New York lost the second game, 6-2, when Cook surrendered Gwynn’s three-run homer to break a 2-2 tie in the seventh.

“I left so many guys on base in the first game, I was just trying to come through and get a base hit,” said Gwynn, who hit his sixth homer on a 1-and-0 fastball that Cook left out over the plate. Gwynn drove in five runs on three hits in the two games.

The loss in the second game went to Greg McMichael (1-1), who was charged with two runs despite not giving up a hit in two-thirds of an inning. An error by shortstop Luis Lopez opened the seventh, and a two-out walk to Quilvio Veras chased McMichael and brought on Cook to face fellow lefty Gwynn.

“I was kind of happy to see Cook coming in there, even though the last at-bat of the first game he threw a real good slider and I just pecked at it and it was fortunate it fell in for a base hit,” Gwynn said.

The Padres added another run when Turk Wendell walked Archi Cianfrocco with the bases loaded.

Gwynn also drove in San Diego’s first run, in the third inning, and has 2,835 hits and 999 runs batted in.

Atlanta 7, St. Louis 3--Mark McGwire homered, but the Braves didn’t in a win at St. Louis.

Atlanta rallied for seven runs in the eighth inning but failed in its attempt to break the major league record for consecutive games with home runs. The Braves homered in 25 consecutive games, tied with the 1941 New York Yankees and 1944 Detroit Tigers.

McGwire’s homer was his 15th, leaving him one short of the major league lead. The solo shot off Kevin Millwood in the fourth was McGwire’s first to right field this season, and gave him 23 in 41 games at Busch Stadium since the Cardinals acquired him last July 31.

Chicago 9, Colorado 7--Vinny Castilla went five for six and hit his major league-leading 16th homer, but Chicago’s Henry Rodriguez hit the fourth grand slam of his career and Mark Grace had two homers in the Cubs’ victory at Denver.

Kevin Tapani (5-2) won for the 12th time in 14 decisions despite giving up 13 hits in 5 2/3 innings.

Cincinnati 11, Florida 8--Eddie Taubensee drove in three runs with a single, double and sacrifice fly for the Reds in their victory at Cincinnati.

It was the fifth consecutive loss for the Marlins, who juggled their lineup and didn’t start Gary Sheffield, Bobby Bonilla and Charles Johnson but still saw their record drop to 13-28, matching the 1995 start as the franchise’s worst.

Pittsburgh 7, Houston 2--Rookie Jose Silva gave up five hits in seven strong innings at Houston, and the Pirates won to stop the Astros’ five-game winning streak.

Silva (4-3) gave up one run and two hits in the first inning, then retired 17 of his next 19 batters.

Arizona 4, Milwaukee 1--Matt Williams broke a 0-for-26 slump with a tiebreaking two-run double and Andy Fox homered for the Diamondbacks, who ended an eight-game losing streak by winning at Phoenix.