Trachsel Finally Gets a Victory

Steve Trachsel’s first win with the New York Mets was a long time coming.

Mike Piazza hit a three-run homer to cap a five-run sixth inning and Trachsel pitched six strong innings for his first win after four losses as the Mets beat the Houston Astros, 8-2, Monday night.

“It was a little bit of a relief, definitely,” Trachsel said. “It was a little late coming, but hopefully I can build on it.”

The Mets were relieved as well. After losing five of the final six games on a nine-game trip, the NL champions came home with the worst record in the league.

A rare offensive outburst and solid pitching by Trachsel (1-4) helped straighten New York (10-15) out for at least one night.

“I don’t think our team lacked confidence, but we’ve been in a little bit of a rut,” said Jay Payton, who started the sixth-inning rally with a double and added a solo homer in the seventh.

“We’ve been consistently bad for a while this year. We need to be consistently good. Tonight was one of our best games of the year.”

The Mets entered as the lowest-scoring team in the majors with 81 runs in 24 games. The eight runs were the most for the Mets since beating Atlanta, 9-4, in the home opener April 9.

Trachsel, a disaster at the start of his Met career, had his best start of the season. He gave up one run in six innings to lower his ERA from 10.42 to 8.28. The right-hander, who signed a $7-million, two-year deal in the off-season, struck out seven and walked one.