Their Touch Is Back

A six-game trip that began on such a sour note, with closer Eric Gagne giving up a stunning, game-winning two-run home run to Montreal’s Troy O’Leary last Tuesday night, couldn’t have ended sweeter for the Dodgers.

Andy Ashby chilled the New York Mets on a steamy afternoon, giving up one run and four hits in seven innings; Marquis Grissom tripled, doubled and scored two runs; and Gagne provided the finishing touches, striking out Mike Piazza and Mo Vaughn to close the Dodgers’ 2-1 victory Sunday before 42,386 in Shea Stadium.

Gagne’s 43rd save moved him within one of Todd Worrell’s franchise record of 44 set in 1996, extended the Dodgers’ win streak to five and closed a 5-1 trip. The Dodgers’ first Shea Stadium sweep since 1995 cut Arizona’s lead in the National League West to seven games and increased the Dodgers’ wild-card lead over San Francisco to four games.

The Mets, in last place in the NL East, have lost eight in a row overall and their last 11 games in Shea, their longest home skid since losing a franchise-record 13 consecutive in 1979.

“We were one pitch away from winning all six games on the trip,” Manager Jim Tracy said. “We’re getting back to playing the way we did in the first 88 games, when we had a lot of success.”

The Dodgers were 8-17 after the All-Star break, going from first place in the NL West and 2 1/2 games ahead of Arizona to third place and seven games back, but they have righted themselves, winning eight of their last 10. They are 21-11 in one-run games. Starting pitching, as it did most of the first half, has keyed the recent surge. Dodger starters are 4-0 with a 1.70 earned-run average in the last seven games, and Ashby was in command Sunday, allowing only one runner to reach third base.

August and September have not been kind to Ashby, who entered 2002 with a 58-50 record and 3.94 ERA in the first four months of the season and a 28-37 record and 4.68 ERA in the final two months.

But after a six-game lull, when he had a 7.22 ERA from June 23-July 23, Ashby (9-9) found a burst of energy and a groove that has resulted in a 1.54 ERA in his last five starts.

“The main thing is I’m not thinking about mechanics like I was 1 1/2 months ago,” said Ashby, who missed all but two starts last season because of major elbow surgery. “I tried to feel for the right way to pitch instead of just letting it happen. It’s getting better. It’s much more consistent.”

So is the umpiring in the eyes of the Dodgers, who felt they were burned by several blown calls in July but can’t complain much about the officiating in August. They caught a huge break Thursday night when a sure double hit the third base umpire and turned into a Montreal out, and they were on the receiving end of a questionable call Sunday.

With runners on first and second and no outs in the second, New York’s Vaughn tagged from second on Jeromy Burnitz’s fly to deep right and slid safely into third. But Vaughn slipped off the bag as he popped up from the slide, and Dodger third baseman Adrian Beltre, with the ball in his bare hand, motioned slightly toward the runner.

Third base umpire Brian O’Nora called Vaughn out, and John Valentin grounded to short to end the inning.

“I didn’t touch him,” Beltre said. “The umpire was behind Mo, and from his angle, it looked like I tagged him, but I didn’t.

“When things are going good, they’re going good. When they’re going bad, they’re bad.”

Things have been going good lately for Beltre, who is batting .407 (33 for 81) with five homers and 20 runs batted in over his last 20 games, and he had a hand in both Dodger rallies Sunday.

Grissom, whose two-week surge may result in reducing left fielder Brian Jordan’s playing time, tripled over center fielder Timo Perez’s head in the third and scored on Beltre’s single to left-center. The Mets’ Roberto Alomar walked, stole second and scored on Perez’s RBI single to make it 1-1 in the bottom of the third, but Grissom doubled to right-center to lead off the fifth.

Beltre lined a single off the right-field wall, advancing Grissom to third, and Shawn Green hit a sacrifice fly to left to drive in the winning run, sending the Dodgers on their way to their first series sweep since June 21-23 against Boston. Next is a nine-game home stand against Florida, Atlanta and Arizona.

“It was a weird trip,” said Gagne, who saved four of the team’s five wins. “I felt so bad after the first day and better the next. There were all kinds of emotions. But we won the last five games. That’s all that counts.”