Mets Come Near Perfection

It wasn’t perfect, but it’s as close as the New York Mets have come in their 42-year history.

Rookie right-hander Jae Seo combined with two relievers on a one-hitter, and the Mets faced the minimum 27 batters to defeat the Florida Marlins, 5-0, Tuesday night at Miami.

Seo (5-2) gave up a fifth-inning single to Juan Encarnacion before splitting a nail on the index finger of his pitching hand and being removed after 6 2/3 innings.

“I didn’t know anything about it,” Seo said of the Mets’ first-time feat. “I’m more happy about making up for the tough loss we took last night.”

It was the third consecutive game that the Mets were involved in a one-hitter. Steve Trachsel threw a one-hitter at Anaheim on Sunday and Florida rookie Dontrelle Willis threw a one-hitter against the Mets on Monday night.

The Elias Sports Bureau, baseball’s statistician, was unable to immediately determine if a team had ever been involved in three consecutive one-hitters.

New York’s starting pitchers have given up only six hits in their last 20 2/3 innings. David Weathers and Armando Benitez were perfect in 2 1/3 innings of relief to close out Seo’s fourth consecutive winning start.

Cincinnati 2, Chicago 1 -- Sean Casey’s run-scoring double with two out in the 10th inning lifted the Reds at Cincinnati.

The Reds lead the major leagues with 18 victories in their last at-bat -- more than half their total of 35. They’ve gotten nine game-ending hits from eight players, including Casey twice.

Russell Branyan started the latest winning rally with a leadoff walk in the 10th inning from Mike Remlinger (4-1). After Barry Larkin’s sacrifice, Todd Wellemeyer relieved and retired Jose Guillen on a fly before Casey doubled to the gap in left-center field.

Philadelphia 5, Atlanta 4 -- David Bell’s single in the bottom of the ninth drove in pinch-runner Nick Punto with the winning run.

Jimmy Rollins had four hits and two runs batted in for the Phillies, who have won two of their last three.

Turk Wendell (1-1) pitched two shutout innings to pick up his first victory in two years and his first for Philadelphia. After being acquired from the Mets in July 2001, he had an 0-2 record before sitting out the 2002 season because of an elbow injury.

Mike Lieberthal led off the ninth with a single against Darren Holmes and Punto was sent in to run. Rollins followed with a dribbler in front of the plate. Holmes handled the grounder but threw wildly to first base, sending Punto to third and Rollins to second.

Bell belted the first pitch he saw from Holmes (1-1) over the left-center-field wall.

Houston 4, Arizona 3 -- Jeff Kent hit a tiebreaking single in the eighth inning at Houston and Octavio Dotel (6-2) earned his team-leading sixth victory to help the Astros end a four-game losing streak.

Oscar Villareal (4-4) hit Craig Biggio with a pitch to start the eighth and Morgan Ensberg sacrificed him to second.

After Jeff Bagwell was intentionally walked, Kent lined a single to left field to drive in Biggio with the go-ahead run.

Dotel came in to start the eighth and walked the first batter. But he struck out Robert Hammock and Steve Finley and got Lyle Overlay on a groundout. No other Astro pitcher has more than four victories.

Billy Wagner earned his 20th save in 21 opportunities.

St. Louis 12, Milwaukee 3 -- Garrett Stephenson won his first road game in three seasons and Albert Pujols, Miguel Cairo and Jim Edmonds homered.

The Cardinals had gone 10 games without getting a victory from one of their starters.

Stephenson (4-5) hadn’t won in 11 consecutive road starts dating to Sept. 1, 2000, when he beat Pittsburgh. He sat out in 2001 after elbow surgery and made 10 starts in 2002, but was on the disabled list twice.

San Diego 4, Colorado 3 -- Ryan Klesko homered twice and drove in three runs as the Padres won a game at Denver that was called after eight innings because of rain.

Montreal at Pittsburgh -- The game was postponed because of rain and will be made up today as part of a doubleheader.