Piazza’s Homer Powers Mets, 6-3

Mike Piazza stepped out from the New York Met dugout, waved to the roaring crowd and basked in a rare curtain call.

For baseball’s greatest slugging catcher, the celebrations have been few and far between lately. One big swing got him back in the fans’ good graces.

“It felt good,” Piazza said with a big smile. “It really did.”

Piazza hit a tiebreaking, three-run homer in the eighth inning, and David Wright connected twice to lead the Mets over the Atlanta Braves, 6-3, Thursday night at New York.

Piazza, batting .260 with 10 homers and 39 runs batted in, has struggled to produce big hits the last couple of seasons because of injuries. He came through this time, though, sending an 0-and-2 pitch from Blaine Boyer over the right-field wall.

The homer was Piazza’s 388th, one behind Johnny Bench for 46th on the career list, and gave him 1,200 RBIs.

“It’s weird,” Piazza said. “I feel like I’ve been swinging the bat pretty well. I’m not hitting .350 or anything, but I guess I was lucky the first part of my career. I guess it’s catching up to me a little bit.”

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Chicago 5, Pittsburgh 1 -- Mark Prior gave up two hits in eight strong innings and helped himself with two singles at Chicago as the Cubs won their fourth in a row. Prior (6-3) gave up a second-inning single to Matt Lawton and a leadoff single to pinch-hitter Tike Redman in the eighth. He walked three and struck out 10.

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Arizona 6, San Diego 0 -- Javier Vazquez pitched eight sharp innings, had two hits and scored a run at San Diego.

Shawn Green had three hits for the Diamondbacks, who pulled within 4 1/2 games of the National League West-leading Padres.

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Philadelphia 13, Florida 7 -- Mike Lieberthal and Pat Burrell each hit two homers to lead the Phillies at Philadelphia.

Bobby Abreu, who hit a record 41 homers in winning the home run derby on Monday, was moved to the cleanup spot by the Phillies. Chase Utley hit third, and Burrell was dropped to fifth. Manager Charlie Manuel said the moves had nothing to do with the right fielder’s record-setting performance.

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Milwaukee 4, Washington 2 -- Damian Miller atoned for a baserunning blunder with a two-run double off Gary Majewski in the eighth inning at Milwaukee.

Miller, who was caught trying to score from third on a comebacker to the mound an inning earlier, sent a full-count pitch to the gap in left center to break a 2-2 tie.