Hampton Hurt, But Mets Roll

In the short time he pitched Thursday, Mike Hampton earned the admiration of the Colorado Rockies.

"It was a really smart move on his part to come out, not to push it to get a win just because they had a cushion," Terry Shumpert said after Hampton helped the Mets beat the Rockies 13-2.

Hampton left the game with a broken rib and reliever Turk Wendell (5-4) won, backed by homers from Todd Zeile, Benny Agbayani, Robin Ventura and Mike Bordick.

"I cringed when I saw him come out," Mets manager Bobby Valentine said. "We are optimistic that he'll be OK."

Hampton apparently injured himself while batting in the third inning, then walked Todd Helton opening the fourth and threw ball one to Jeffrey Hammonds before the Mets took him out.

He may have aggravated an old football injury.

"I have a thought where it might have been in high school, when I had to come out of a football game early, but that was 10 years ago," Hampton said.

The Mets said the injury ia small stress fracture on the right side of his rib cage. Hampton is day to day.

Wendell struck out a career-high six in four innings, his longest appearance since September 1997. He allowed two runs - one earned - and one hit.

"Today was just a fun day," said Wendell, who singles, one of the Mets' 15 hits off four pitchers, "I'm just sorry that it came about this way. I know Mike is hurting a little bit."

Ventura, Zeile and Bordick each had three RBIs for the Mets, who pulled within 2 1/2 games of idle Atlanta, the NL East leader.

Ex-Met Masato Yoshii (5-13). the Rockies starter, allowed nine runs, 10 hits and five walks in five innings.

Todd Helton was 1-for-1 with a walk, raising his major league-leading average to .396.

Ventura's sacrifice fly and Zeile's RBI single put the Mets ahead 2-0 in the first. and New York added three runs in the third on sacrifice flies by Ventura and Agbayani, and Bordick's RBI single.

New York made it 9-0 in the fifth. Zeile hit a two-run homer, Agbayani followed with his 10th homer and Yoshii threw a wild pitch with a runner on third.

Ventura homered in the sixth off Bobby Chouinard and Bordick hit a two-run homer in the seventh off Craig House. Bubba Trammell added an RBI double.

Colorado scored twice in the seventh when Todd Hollingsworth hit an RBI double and came home on throwing errors by second baseman Kurt Abbott and Wendell.

Notes