Piazza Has the Power in Dodger Loss

It seemed only fitting that the moment occurred where Mike Piazza began, stirring thoughts of what could have been for the Dodgers.

And although the Dodgers no longer celebrate Piazza’s accomplishments, he reminded them of their past with a record-tying home run Tuesday night in the New York Mets’ 9-5 victory at Dodger Stadium.

The onetime Dodger franchise player pulled even with Carlton Fisk atop the list for homers by a catcher, hitting a one-out solo shot in the sixth against Hideo Nomo to break a 3-3 tie.

Piazza received an ovation from many in the crowd of 28,524 after sending the ball into the left-field pavilion for his fourth homer this season, 351st as a catcher and 362nd overall in a 12-year career.

The Dodgers retrieved the ball after a fan threw it back on the field, providing Piazza with another special memory about Chavez Ravine.

“It’s a great feeling to do it here,” said the former 62nd-round Dodger draft choice and 1993 National League rookie of the year, who was traded to the Florida Marlins on May 15, 1998.

“I came up with this organization. I saw Tommy [Lasorda] before the game and it means a lot, it really does. This is special.”

The Mets were pleased for Piazza.

“It’s an awesome thing,” said left-hander Tom Glavine (3-1), who showed his mettle in a six-inning outing and earned his 254th victory.

“He doesn’t talk about it a lot, but to do something better than anyone at your position, that’s just incredible. We’re waiting for his next home run, so he can be all by himself.”

Piazza also moved into 58th place on the career homer list, one ahead of Joe DiMaggio, on a night the Mets had 13 hits.

“I’m just glad I could get us going a little offensively,” Piazza said. “And it was good to get it [the record-tying homer] over with.”

Cesar Izturis extended his career-high hitting streak to 14 games and had three hits. Milton Bradley also contributed three hits, and Jose Hernandez continued his impressive work off the bench with his first homer as a Dodger in a 14-hit attack.

However, Nomo struggled again and the bullpen uncharacteristically gave up eight hits and five earned runs.

Nomo (3-2) failed to pitch into the seventh inning for the fifth time in as many starts. The right-hander gave up three homers among five hits and four earned runs in six innings. After giving up 24 homers in 218 1/3 innings last season, Nomo has already been tagged for nine homers in only 28 innings.

“He’s given up home runs in the past, but he did a very credible job,” said Manager Jim Tracy, whose team is winless (0-7) when trailing after seven innings.

Nomo said it’s simply a case of bad pitches and bad timing.

Catcher Paul Lo Duca said Nomo lacked rhythm from the outset.

“He was just totally out of sync,” Lo Duca said. “Mechanically, he wasn’t there the first couple of innings. It’s tough right now. He’s really just on guts right now.”

Although Glavine wasn’t as effective as in his previous four starts, he was good enough with the Dodger staff experiencing an off night.

The two-time NL Cy Young Award winner gave up 10 hits and three earned runs, increasing his earned-run average to 1.64.

“We got an awful lot of hits tonight in the early part of the game, and took some great at-bats against Tommy Glavine,” Tracy said.

“The unfortunate thing is that we couldn’t get the extra hit to put us over the hump, something that we had been doing a lot of in previous games.”