Neither Al Leiter nor Armando Benitez was involved in the home-plate Mike Piazza mob scene, both having retired to the clubhouse.
Hard-luck Al wouldn’t budge from his spot by the television monitors during the Mets’ ninth-inning rally, watching alongside Orel Hershiser and Rick Reed. The now-mortal Benitez was drowning his sorrows in the weight room.
After John Olerud reached on a hit, Hershiser and Reed wanted to return to the dugout. Leiter wouldn’t let them leave. Moments later, Piazza delivered some opposite-field magic that sweetened the night for Leiter and Benitez.
“We were in a lucky spot, a good spot [in the clubhouse],” Leiter explained following the Mets’ 4-3 thriller over the Padres.
Personally, the luck hasn’t shone on Leiter following his superb 1998 season. The Mets’ ace picked up a no-decision after his season’s best outing. Leiter pitched seven strong innings, allowing four hits and was ready for more before Bobby Valentine went with Benitez to start the eighth with the Mets ahead 2-1. Benitez had not allowed a run in his first nine outings as a Met, fanning 15 over 92/3 innings.
By the time a bungling Benitez was through allowing back-to-back RBI doubles to Tony Gwynn and Phil Nevin in the eighth, the Mets were in a 3-2 hole before Piazza prevailed
“I was in the weight room,” Benitez said. “I saw it on TV when [Piazza] hit it. I see this guy right here [Piazza] and gave him a hand and said thank you.”
“The infallible bullpen became fallible,” Valentine said. Gwynn, now hitting .408, crushed a misplaced Benitez fastball off the right-center field wall to tie the score. “I was thinking fastball away,” said Benitez, whose ERA climbed from 0.00 to 1.69. “He’s the best hitter in the league. I just have to give him a hand. Someday someone had to hit the ball [off me] and he did it.”
Leiter gave a gutsy seventh-inning performance that made him very deserving of procuring his season’s second victory. It was a sequence that ended his night’s work on the highest of notes.
With runners on second and third and one out in a 2-1 game, Leiter blew out San Diego’s Damian Jackson with high heat on his 112th pitch. Then Leiter got pinch-hitter Eric Owens in on the hands on a meek bounce out to end the seventh.
“One hundred and [14] pitches in seven innings, for me that’s not too bad,” said Leiter, indicating he would’ve preferred to start the eighth. “But let’s face it. We have a great reliever and it happens. Obviously he feels bad, but he’s going to save me all year.”
After an 0-4 spring, Leiter is 1-2 in five starts after lowering his ERA from 4.85 to 4.09. “Ultimately winning the game is what it’s all about,” Leiter said. “I did my job to put us in position for Mike to be a hero.”
