Alomar Finally Gets Offensive

Roberto Alomar borrowed one of Mike Piazza’s bats and suddenly became a slugger too.

Alomar homered twice and singled to set up Piazza’s go-ahead single in the sixth inning, leading the New York Mets over the Montreal Expos, 6-4, Sunday.

Alomar began the afternoon batting .170 with one home run since moving to the Mets after 11 years in the American League.

The perennial All-Star hoped to change his luck by trying out a Piazza bat he sampled in spring training.

“He gave it to me five days ago. Today, I decided to use it, and it worked,” Alomar said. “Using a heavier bat helps me stay back.”

Alomar said he planned to use the 33-ounce model tonight against Atlanta. And that’s fine with Piazza.

“He can use them all he wants if he keeps hitting like that,” the All-Star catcher said. “I’ll have to order some more for him.”

The Mets won for the fourth time in five games. Steve Trachsel (1-2) got the victory despite another costly error by New York’s shaky infield.

Alomar gave the Mets a quick lead when he hit a three-run homer in the first inning. In the third, he won a 12-pitch duel with Tony Armas Jr. (1-2) with a solo shot. Alomar recorded the 13th multihomer game of his career.

“I don’t know if we’ll see a lot of two-homer games from Robbie, but we’ll see a lot of great nights,” Met Manager Bobby Valentine said.

Valentine had offered to give Alomar the day off, but was turned down.

“I know you’re going to have ups and downs,” Alomar said. “I wanted to play.”

Florida 7, Atlanta 0--The Marlins (6-6) are at .500 or better after 12 games for only the third time in their 10-year history. They started 8-4 in 1997, when they went on to win the World Series, and 6-6 in 2000.

They won at Miami behind A.J. Burnett (2-1), who pitched a four-hitter, and third-string catcher Ramon Castro, who homered twice.

Jason Marquis (1-2) gave up three home runs, including one by Derrek Lee that cleared the 434-foot sign in left-center field--and the 26-foot-high wall behind it. The distance was estimated at 442 feet.

Chicago 5, Pittsburgh 1--Jon Lieber waited out more than three hours of rain delays at Pittsburgh to remain unbeaten against his former club, limiting the Pirates to a run over five innings.

The game was called with the Pirates about to bat in the eighth after the third of three rain delays that totaled 3 hours 53 minutes.

Lieber (2-0) won for the 19th time in 22 decisions dating to last season and improved to 7-0 in 10 career starts against the Pirates, who traded him for outfielder Brant Brown in 1999.

Milwaukee 4, San Francisco 3--Barry Bonds left the game in the second inning at Pacific Bell Park with a hamstring injury and the Brewers rallied to end their seven-game losing streak.

Bonds, who hit his 574th home run Saturday to move past Harmon Killebrew into sole possession sixth place on the career list, walked leading off the third inning, advanced on an infield groundout and scored on Shawon Dunston’s single.

Bonds left the game at the end of the inning and the Giants said he had a mild right hamstring strain, an injury he first sustained during the final week of spring training.

Arizona 6, Colorado 5--Quinton McCracken had three hits and two RBIs, including his first home run since 1999, helping the Diamondbacks complete a four-game sweep.

It’s the first time the Rockies have been swept in a four-game series at Coors Field, which opened in 1995.

McCracken, who played for the Rockies from 1995 to 1997, started his second consecutive game and had a homer, triple and single. Leading off, he also scored three runs.

Philadelphia 3, Cincinnati 1--Vicente Padilla took a shutout into the ninth inning at Philadelphia and Bobby Abreu had two RBIs as the Phillies salvaged the finale of a three-game series.

Padilla (2-1), used primarily as a reliever in the past, gave up six hits and had 11 strikeouts in his third major league start. He didn’t walk a batter in eight-plus innings.

Houston 5, St. Louis 4--Shane Reynolds (2-1) gave up two runs--one earned--and six hits in 51/3 innings at St. Louis as the Astros stopped a five-game Cardinal winning streak.

Cardinal starter Garrett Stephenson (0-2) yielded two runs and five hits in three innings, but left because of lower back spasms.