Mets Finish Sweep of the Yankees

Ty Wigginton and Richard Hidalgo sent the New York Mets to their sweetest sweep in years.

Wigginton’s second home run ended an eighth-inning tie, Hidalgo homered for the fourth consecutive game and the Mets completed their first Subway Series sweep with a 6-5 victory over the New York Yankees Sunday at Shea Stadium.

The surprising Mets won four of six against their cross-town rivals this year after finishing 0-6 in 2003. It’s the first time they’ve won the season series since interleague play began in 1997.

As Braden Looper got the last three outs in the ninth, Met fans among the sellout crowd of 55,437 chanted “Sweep! Sweep!” That surely wasn’t the present Yankee owner George Steinbrenner was hoping for on his 74th birthday.

“Those are the games you want to be in as a closer. It’s a lot of fun,” Looper said. “They’ve got the best record in baseball and we just swept ‘em. It says a lot.”

Yankee Manager Joe Torre played the game under protest after Jorge Posada was called out for interference when he was hit while running from first to second on Miguel Cairo’s eighth-inning grounder, scored as a hit. First baseman Mike Piazza had dived for the ball in front of Posada.

“He didn’t seem clear on what particularly he was protesting,” crew chief Mike Reilly said. “We were very clear, and we felt we had gotten it 100% right. The second baseman still had an opportunity to make a play on the ball before Posada deflected it.”

Bernie Williams homered, had four hits and drove in three runs for the Yankees, who started the series at Shea Stadium after a three-game sweep of Boston.

“There’s no excuses,” Gary Sheffield said. “Those guys played well. They played better than we did.”

With the score tied, 5-5, Wigginton sent a drive over the left-field fence against Tom Gordon (2-3) leading off the eighth for his 10th homer this season, his third in two games.

“I really just tried to concentrate on getting one up in the zone that I could drive,” Wigginton said.

The Yankees scored two runs in the seventh, tying the score, 4-4, on Derek Jeter’s single against Ricky Bottalico.

Hidalgo homered against Felix Heredia in the seventh to give the Mets a 5-4 lead.

“Hidalgo’s just crushing the ball,” Looper said. “I tell you what, we’ve got a fun team to watch.”