McRae, Mets Slam Giants

After 16 major league seasons, it is understandable how some of the faces might start to blend together for Orel Hershiser.

"I mentally was thinking about it as an intrasquad game," Hershiser said Saturday after the New York Mets beat one of his former teams, the San Francisco Giants, 9-4.

"I built some great relationships over there," said Hershiser (2-2), who pitched for the Giants last season and left after the club declined a $2 million option.

Brian McRae hit a grand slam and Edgardo Alfonzo added a solo homer to lead the Mets to their fourth straight win.

Hershiser, 40, limited his old teammates to two runs and five hits in six innings before being lifted for a pinch-hitter with a 4-2 lead. Still, he felt he struggled much of the day.

"It was a war. I could just have easily be sitting here talking to you as a losing pitcher, telling you why I was so terrible," said Hershiser, who walked four and struck out four.

McRae's fifth career grand slam, off Giants reliever Jerry Spradlin in the seventh, made it 8-2.

"When I first hit it, I thought I hit it good enough for a sacrifice fly, but the wind carried it a little bit. I'm just glad I hit it in the air," McRae said.

San Francisco, which came into the series with the best record in the NL, has dropped the first two games to the Mets after winning six straight.

"We didn't get the timely hitting when we had Orel in trouble. We just need to tighten our game up. We haven't looked too good the last two days," Giants manager Dusty Baker said.

Alfonzo gave the Mets a 1-0 lead in the first inning with his third homer. The Giants went ahead 2-1 in the second on Rich Aurilia's RBI single and starter Chris Brock's RBI groundout.

John Olerud and Robin Ventura had RBI singles in the third to make it 3-2. Luis Lopez added an RBI single in the sixth.

Brock (2-2) allowed seven hits and four runs in 5 2-3 innings with four walks and five strikeouts.

Hershiser escaped a fourth-inning jam when the Giants loaded the bases with one out and again in the fifth when te Giants had the tying run on third with one out.

"He seemed to make his best pitches from the stretch," Mets manager Bobby Valentine said.

The Mets current winning streak began Wednesday night with Mike Piazza's dramatic game-winning homer in the ninth inning off San Diego's Trevor Hoffman.

Notes: