Perez’s Perfect Plan Held in Check

If Dodger left-hander Odalis Perez was tipping his pitches, as New York Manager Bobby Valentine suggested Saturday night, then what does that say about the Mets’ hitters?

Perez flirted with baseball history again, throwing six perfect innings for the second time this season, before losing a perfect game, a no-hitter and a shutout within the span of two pitches in the seventh.

The Dodgers whipped the New York Mets, 10-4, before 50,763 in Shea Stadium, increasing their National League wild-card lead over San Francisco to three games, their winning streak to four, and sending the Mets to their seventh straight loss and 10th straight home defeat.

But the victory left a residue of regret in Perez, who walked Rey Ordonez after a controversial full-count check swing with one out in the seventh and gave up a two-run home run to Mike Piazza on his next pitch.

“It was disappointing because you don’t see a perfect game too often,” said Perez, who gave up one hit and struck out seven in seven innings. “When you don’t get a call like that [to Ordonez], you have to be disappointed. I didn’t have the concentration on the next pitch.”

The Dodgers bombed Met starter Pedro Astacio for eight runs and 12 hits in three innings, prompting one reporter to ask Valentine if the right-hander was tipping his pitches.

“No, but the funny thing is we had Perez’s pitches,” Valentine said. “You see what good that does. His glove shows every pitch he throws. So what. It’s in the [scouting report]. It’s a little hard to tell between the fastball and changeup, but it’s easy to tell on the breaking pitch. So I guess everyone might as well write that and go tell the Dodgers.”

Perez left the Dodger clubhouse before being informed of Valentine’s remarks, but if the Mets knew what was coming, why couldn’t they hit it?

Perez came within a Corey Patterson bad-hop infield single of a perfect game against the Chicago Cubs on April 26, facing the minimum 27 batters that day, and he threw a one-hit shutout against Colorado on June 25, losing a no-hitter in the sixth.

He retired the first 19 batters Saturday night and seemed to have some no-hit karma working when right fielder Shawn Green made two running catches of slicing drives down the line and center fielder Dave Roberts made a diving catch of John Valentin’s fifth-inning flare.

Perez threw first-pitch strikes to 15 of the first 19 batters and had no three-ball counts until Ordonez ran the count full in the seventh. Perez threw a slider, slightly inside but close enough for Ordonez to begin his swing.

Home-plate umpire Brian O’Nora ruled Ordonez checked his swing, first-base umpire Gary Cederstrom verified the call, and a deflated Perez grooved his next pitch to Piazza, who blasted a changeup over the left-field bullpen for a homer estimated at 455 feet.

“That had the makings of being something awfully special,” Dodger Manager Jim Tracy said of Perez’s effort. “All I can say is it was a heck of a 3-2 pitch [to Ordonez].”

Perez was backed by a 17-hit attack that provided much-needed breathing room for the Dodgers. Of their previous 34 games, 21 were decided by two runs or fewer.

Tracy’s makeshift lineup included Mark Grudzielanek replacing Adrian Beltre (sore hamstrings) in the third spot, Dave Hansen filling in for Beltre at third and Mike Kinkade playing first base instead of Eric Karros or Tyler Houston.

Karros was one for 14 (.071) in his career against Astacio, Houston was three for 17 (.176) against the former Dodger, and Kinkade had never faced him, so Tracy figured, why not try something new?

Kinkade provided the big blow in the third, a two-run double that gave the Dodgers a four-run lead, and Hansen added an RBI double in the third. Green, who had an RBI single in the third, followed singles by Marquis Grissom and Grudzielanek in the fourth with a towering three-run home run to right, his 36th.

Met fans were so disgusted with the 8-0 deficit they began chanting, “Go on strike! Go on strike!” Valentine was asked how frustrating the Mets’ recent skid has been.

“It’s killing me,” he said. “What do you mean by how frustrating is it? Are you trying to test my blood pressure? It’s killing me. It’s killing my folks. It’s killing my family. It’s killing my dogs. This is terrible.”