Piazza, Alfonzo Lift Mets, 7-6

The New York Met rally didn’t fall short this time.

Mike Piazza homered twice and third baseman Edgardo Alfonzo hit a game-winning single in the 12th inning as the Mets came back from a five-run deficit to defeat the Atlanta Braves, 7-6, Monday night.

New York rallied from a 7-0 deficit Saturday against Montreal before losing, 9-8, in 11 innings. The Mets completed the job this time.

“It’s tough when you get down like that, especially against a team like Atlanta,” Piazza said. “But we’ve come back before and we believe we’re going to win these games.”

One day after Roberto Alomar homered twice with one of Piazza’s bats, the Met slugger did the same. Piazza hit solo shots in the second and seventh innings, and the Mets scored five runs in the seventh to tie the score, 6-6.

New York won it in the 12th. Jay Payton, hitless in his first five at-bats, singled with one out against Chris Hammond (0-1). After a two-out walk to Piazza, Alfonzo hit a soft single to right-center off Kevin Gryboski that scored Payton.

“We play some good games against the Braves, it seems,” Manager Bobby Valentine said. “We know we can win ballgames no matter what the score is.”

The Braves intentionally walked Alfonzo in the same situation in the 10th inning to face Jeromy Burnitz. Hammond struck out Burnitz to end the 10th.

Atlanta Manager Bobby Cox considered walking Alfonzo again, but decided against it because Hammond was tiring after throwing 47 pitches.

“He had had enough,” Cox said. “He was great. But you can’t expect anymore than he did. I briefly thought about it, but it wasn’t the move.”

Gary Sheffield went 0 for 6 for the Braves.

“I just felt like we were going to score in double digits today,” Sheffield said. “But we didn’t capitalize early and they capitalized late. We’re just not hitting on all cylinders.”