Piazza Ties Met Record, Ordonez Stays Hot

Mike Piazza tied the team hitting-streak record with a home run on his final swing and Rey Ordonez kept up his All-Star campaign with three RBIs to lead the Mets past the Florida Marlins, 8-2, Tuesday night at New York.

Piazza, hitless in his first three at-bats, sent a 2-2 pitch from Vic Darensbourg over the left-field bullpen in the eighth inningto extend his hitting streak to 24 games, tying a record set by Hubie Brooks in 1984. He has a .326 batting average.

But Ordonez, a .242 career hitter before this season, has been the Mets’ hottest hitter with a .407 average in his last 18 games, raising his average to .303. The Mets made their own plea for Ordonez’s all-star candidacy, by imploring fans to vote for the shortstop with a pregame message from the PA announcer and one on the scoreboard reading, “Vote for Rey today.”

Ordonez campaigned with three hits and a brilliant defensive play as the Mets overcame a seventh-inning deficit to win for the 12th time in 15 games and send Florida to its seventh consecutive loss.

With Luis Castillo running from first in the third inning, Tim Hyers hit a grounder that Ordonez fielded and flipped in one motion to Edgardo Alfonzo to start an inning-ending double play.

Ordonez also had an RBI single to right over a drawn-in infield in the Mets’ three-run seventh.

Chicago 13, Colorado 12--Henry Rodriguez hit a three-run homer and drove in the go-ahead run with a single in the eighth to help the Cubs rally from an eight-run deficit in a wild game at Denver.

The Cubs hit five homers, including an National League-leading 24th by Sammy Sosa, and the Rockies had four, including a third-deck shot by Larry Walker.

The eight-run lead was the largest ever relinquished by the Rockies. Teams have reached double digits in runs at Coors Field 20 times this season, including six games in which both teams did it.

Home runs accounted for 10 of the first 13 runs in the game.

Philadelphia 3, Pittsburgh 2--Rookie Randy Wolf won his third consecutive start and Marlon Anderson hit a go-ahead, two-run double to lead the Phillies over the Pirates at Philadelphia.

Wolf, the first Philadelphia pitcher to start his career 3-0 since Pat Combs in 1989, allowed two runs and four hits in seven innings, striking out eight and walking three.

Montreal 2, Atlanta 1--Greg Maddux (6-5) allowed only one earned run and eight hits in seven innings at Atlanta but was hurt by first baseman Randall Simon’s throwing error as the Expos ended a losing streak at five games.

Maddux has a 2.80 ERA in his last six starts, lowering his season ERA to 4.18, but Atlanta has scored only 21 runs in those starts.

St. Louis 4, Houston 3--Mark McGwire, who had homered in each of his previous three games, didn’t hit one out in this game at St. Louis, but did get a single in the 14th inning that drove in the winning run.

In the 10th, McGwire had stranded the potential winning run at third when he grounded out.

Cincinnati 8, Arizona 7--Pokey Reese had five hits in a game for the first time as the Reds held on to win at Phoenix.

Danny Graves got his ninth save, striking out Andy Fox with the potential tying run on second.