Hard-luck Al Leiter wouldn’t budge from his spot in the clubhouse as he watched the Mets’ ninth-inning rally on the locker-room TV. And he wouldn’t let Orel Hershiser or Rick Reed budge either.
After John Olerud reached on a hit, Hershiser and Reed wanted to go to the dugout and Leiter wouldn’t let them leave. Seconds later, Mike Piazza delivered some opposite-field magic that sweetened the night for pitchers Leiter and Armando Benitez.
”We were in a lucky spot, a good spot,” Leiter explained following the Mets’ 4-3 thriller over the Padres. ”I had a feeling something good was going to happen to us.”
Personally, nothing good is happening for the Mets’ ace as he picked up a no-decision after his season’s best outing. Leiter pitched seven strong innings and was ready for more before Bobby Valentine went with Armando 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 Benitez was through allowing back-to-back RBI doubles to the great Tony Gwynn and Phil Nevin in the eighth, the Mets were in a 3-2 hole.
‘I was in the weight room,” Benitez said. ”I saw it on TV when he 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. ”I’m just glad I don’t have to rehash not walking Gwynn.”
Leiter gave the type of gutsy seventh-inning performance that made him very deserving of picking up his second victory last night, a sequence that ended his night’s work on the highest of notes.
With runners on second and third and one out of a 2-1 game, Leiter blew away San Diego’s Damian Jackson with high heat on his 112th pitch of the evening. Then Leiter got pinch-hitter Eric Owens in on the hands and he bounced out meekly to end the seventh and end Leiter’s night seemingly on a winning chord before Benitez messed it up.
”One hundred and [fourteen] pitches in seven innings is not too bad for me,” said Leiter, indicating he would’ve liked to start the eighth. ”But we’ve got a great bullpen and Armando’s going to save me all year.”
Another one slipped away for Leiter, who deserved a better fate in his fifth start. After an 0-4 spring, Leiter, sixth in last year’s NL Cy Young Award voting, didn’t pick up his season’s first victory until his last start in Cincinnati April 22 when he went 61/3 allowing one run.
”Ultimately winning the game is what it’s all about,” Leiter said. ”Mike’s had some frustration and he’s been great about it. It’s nice to see him uplifted and happy.”
