Fonzy Belts 3, Huge Mets Win

Edgardo Alfonzo's performance reached levels that topped any that managers Bobby Valentine and Larry Dierker had ever seen.

Alfonzo went 6-for-6 with three homers as the New York Mets handed the Houston Astros their most lopsided home loss with a 17-1 victory Monday night.

Alfonzo, who also scored a modern major league record six times and drove in five runs, hit a solo homer in the first, singled and scored a run in the second, hit a two-run homer in the fourth and added a solo shot in the sixth.

"I've never seen a four home run performance and I don't think I've ever seen six hits in a major league game," Mets manager Bobby Valentine said. "This is the best one-game offensive performance I've ever seen."

Dierker, Houston's manager, was equally impressed by Alfonzo's surge.

"This is the best I can remember," Dierker said. "I saw Joe Morgan get six hits at Milwaukee when the Braves were playing there but that was in an extra-inning game. Alfonzo hit everything we threw at him."

The second baseman entered New York's six-game road trip in a 2-for-25 slump. He has gone 10-for-19 through the first four games of the trip.

"Tonight I just started having a good time and enjoying every at-bat," Alfonzo said. "It's fun when you do good and win. I really enjoyed this game. It was one of those nights when everything was going well."

Darryl Hamilton was 4-for-5 with a homer and three RBIs and Mike Piazza also homered for New York. Every Mets starter except for pitcher Masato Yoshii had at least one hit.

Yoshii (9-8) pitched six shutout innings and allowed only two singles. He walked one and struck out eight. In his last three starts, the Mets' right-hander is 2-0 and has allowed two runs in 22 1-3 innings.

The Mets, who had a season-high 21 hits, rocked Shane Reynolds (14-11) for seven runs in the first two innings.

"This was one of those games I want to forget as soon as possible," Reynolds said. "It was terrible. It seemed like they were right on everything."

Craig Biggio was trying to forget the rout as soon as it was over.

"Every year you're going to have five laughers that go your way and five laughers that go the other way," Biggio said. "Tonight it happened to go against us."

Alfonzo gave the Mets a 1-0 lead with one out in the first when he drove an 0-1 pitch from Reynolds into the left-field seats.

Hamilton led off the second with his seventh homer. Roger Cedeno followed with a single and moved to second on a sacrifice. Cedeno stole third and scored on Rickey Henderson's single off the left-field wall.

Alfonzo's singled before Olerud's double scored Henderson and Alfonzo for a 5-0 lead. Mike Piazza hit Reynolds' next pitch into the left-field seats for his 32nd homer.

"Tonight I was getting good pitches to hit," Alfonzo said. "I feel I can go out every day and try to be positive and hit the ball hard. Home runs I don't think about, I just try to have good at-bats."

The Mets extended their lead to 9-0 in the fourth when Alfonzo homered to left. His third homer of the game and 23rd of the season in the sixth made the score 11-0.

"By the fourth inning it was obvious it was going to be a real long shot for us to come back," Dierker said. "When that happens I think hitters lose intensity."

The Astros avoided the shutout when rookie Lance Berkman hit Jeff Tam's first pitch for his fourth homer of the year with two outs in the seventh.

Reynolds pitched three innings, allowing seven runs on seven hits. He walked two and struck out three. The right-hander is 0-4 in his last five starts and has not won since he shut out the Dodgers Aug. 5.

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