Mets Lose! Fall Out First

Russ Ortiz pitched seven strong innings and Rich Aurilia and Marvin Benard each homered as the San Francisco Giants, rebounding from a disastrous road trip, beat the New York Mets 3-2 Friday night.

Ortiz (13-8) struck out five and walked three to outduel Masato Yoshii (7-8) and the surging Mets, who dropped one game behind NL East-leading Atlanta but still held a one-game lead over Houston in the NL wild-card race.

The Giants, coming off a 3-9 trip that ended in a sweep at Florida in which they blew four-run leads on three successive days, beat the Mets for the first time in four tries this season.

Ortiz allowed two runs and six hits, including Mike Piazza's 24th home run, a solo shot in the fourth inning. Robb Nen worked the ninth for his 26th save.

Nen allowed two-out singles to Matt Franco and Rickey Henderson before getting Benny Agbayani to ground out.

Aurilia broke a tie in the bottom of the fourth when he connected for his 17th homer, tying the San Francisco team record for most homers by a shortstop. Shortstop Daryl Spencer also had 17 homers in 1958, the Giants' first season in San Franisco.

Benard gave San Francisco a 3-1 edge in the fifth, driving a 2-1 pitch from Yoshii into the right-field seats for his 12th home run. Benard extended his hitting streak to a career-best 11 games and the longest by a Giant this year.

New York pulled to within a run in the seventh. Darryl Hamilton singled and Luis Lopez walked and they moved up on Rey Ordonez's sacrifice. Pinch-hitter Franco walked to load the bases and Henderson's RBI groundout scored Hamilton but Roger Cedeno grounded out to end the inning.

The Giants scored an unearned run on a rare error by New York, the majors' top defensive team.

Ramon Martinez hit a one-out double and J.T. Snow and Ellis Burks drew two-out walks. Bill Mueller hit a slow roller to second. Lopez, starting for Edgardo Alfonzo who was in Venezuela attending his uncle's funeral, charged the ball and tried to make a bare-handed pickup but dropped it for an error, allowing Martinez to score.

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