Leiter, Mets Stop Boston

If every game went like this, all the turmoil at Shea Stadium would disappear.

Benny Agbayani hit his ninth homer in 71 at-bats and Al Leiter made his second straight strong start, leading the Mets over the Boston Red Sox 4-2 Saturday.

"The tides are turning right now," Leiter said. "They're turning in my favor in a positive way."

Robin Ventura and John Olerud also homered for the Mets, who have won five of six following an eight-game losing streak. Leiter stopped that streak by winning 7-2 at Yankee Stadium last Sunday night.

"I don't sit here and say I'm the man to stop streaks and start winning streaks," he said.

Leiter (4-5) allowed two runs and six hits in seven innings. He started with six shutout innings before Troy O'Leary's two-out RBI double and Creighton Gubanich's run-scoring single in the seventh.

With two on, he got out of the seventh by retiring pinch-hitter Jason Varitek on a soft liner to first. Mets manager Bobby Valentine debated whether to leave Leiter in.

"I thought he needed it and we needed for him to get it," Valentine said. "With his runners on base, I wanted him coming into this clubhouse feeling good about himself or knowing his best wasn't enough."

Leiter, 1-4 in his first eight starts, kept concentrating on working both sides of the plate and changing speeds. He needed just 66 pitches in the first six innings and a shutout did cross his mind.

"You're thinking this one's going to be a gem," he said. "Then things happen and you're hoping to win."

Armando Benitez followed with a hitless eighth, and John Franco -- the losr Friday night in Boston's 3-2, 12-inning win - followed with a one-hit ninth for his 15th save in 16 chances.

"The ball's not rolling our way right now," said Trot Nixon, who grounded out in the ninth following O'Leary's one-out single. "We're getting the pitching. We're just not getting the runs."

BoSox starter Pat Rapp can only watch as Benny Agbayani cirlces the bases after his 3rd inning HR. (AP)

Boston starter Pat Rapp (2-4) lost for the first time in six starts since May 5, giving up three runs and seven hits in six innings. Boston manager Jimy Williams was pleased.

"When you give up solos, nobody on, you're not walking anybody, you're pitching right," Williams said.

Even before the game, Valentine said his clubhouse was now calm, a sign that he had made peace with Bobby Bonilla, who refused to pinch hit Tuesday. The three new coaches hired last weekend were settling in, according to Valentine, and a sense of normalcy was returning to a team shaken by the eight-game skid in late May.

Agbayani, hitting .394, homered on a hanging curve leading off the third, the rookie's sixth home run in his last nine starts, and Edgardo Alfonzo doubled home a run later in the inning.

Agbayani had received a scare Wednesday when a ball in the batting cage bounced back at his right eye.

"You have to suck it up," he said, trying to put thoughts of getting hit out of his mind. "Once I get up to the plate, I don't, but when I sit in my chair, I do. It was something that could have ended my career or my season."

Ventura's homer made it 3-0 in the sixth. Olerud homered off Mark Guthrie leading off the eighth.

Notes

• Roger Cedeno stole his major league-leading 33rd base.
• Valentine said he's hopeful his three fired coaches: Bob Apodaca (pitching), Randy Niemann (bullpen) and Tom Robson (hitting) will accept other jobs in the organization.
• Red Sox closer Tom Gordon will have an MRI on his right elbow Monday in Boston. Tim Wakefield will take over as the team's closer, and Boston intends to bring up Jin Ho Cho from Triple-A Pawtucket to take over Wakefield's scheduled start Monday night against Minnesota at Fenway Park.

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