Mets Win As Reed Flirts With No-No

June 9, 1998 / 12:49 AM EDT / CBS/AP

Rick Reed added his name to a long list of Mets pitchers who have almost thrown a no-hitter.

Reed took a perfect game into the seventh inning and finished with a career-best three-hitter, and Mike Piazza homered Monday night to lead New York to a 3-0 win over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

The Mets, who joined the NL in 1962, are one of five teams that have yet throw a no-hitter. Considering that three of those clubs the Rockies, Devil Rays and Diamondbacks didn't come along until the 90s, it's easy to understand why 24,186 fans were in a fever pitch from the fourth inning on.

"It seemed like after I threw my first pitch they were really into the game," said Reed.

After Reed (7-3) got two outs in the seventh inning, the crowd was on its feet when Wade Boggs came to the plate. New York manager Bobby Valentine, who had allowed himself to think no-hitter a few innings earlier, and the rest of the Mets had obeyed the baseball superstition by not talking to Reed in between innings. Reed later said he never talks with anyone, anyhow.

However, a few innings earlier, Valentine had allowed himself to think about a no-hitter and knew with Boggs coming up in the seventh it would probably be Reed's toughest out all night.

Boggs, a .331 lifetime hitter who still obeys his own superstition by eating chicken before every game, then played villain by doubling to center on a 3-2 pitch to end Reed's bid.

As the ball bounced off the warning track in center, TV replays showed Reed wincing at what might have been.

"I was upset because I had thrown that same pitch to him in his previous at-bat, and he grounded out to second," he said. "That one I just left over the plate a little bit."

Boggs, who was the last out of Dave Righetti's no-hitter in 1983 while with Boston, didn't mind being the bad guy.

"I didn't want to be involved in another no-hitter," he said. "It's not fun."

The shutout was the third of Reed's career and his first since 1992 with Kansas City. He struck out a career-high 10 in winning for the sixth time in seven starts.

Shortstop Rey Ordonez and left fielder Bernard Gilkey made outstanding defensive plays on consecutive pitches in the eighth to preserve the shutout after Reed gave up consecutive singles to start the inning.

With runners at first and second, Ordonez made a diving backhanded stab of pinch-hitter Randy Winn's grounder in the hole and made an off-balance throw from a prone position to third for a force.

On the next pitch, Gilkey raced toward the line in left to make a sprawling catch of Quinton McCracken's sinking liner. Reed waited to shake both his teammates hands before leaving the field.

"If Rey doesn't make the play he makes, and if Bernard doesn't make the lay he makes, we might still be playing," said Reed (7-3). "Those two plays, in my opinion, saved the game."

Ordonez, who seems to make a spectacular play every time he takes the field, blew his manager away with his latest gem.

"To make the throw from you chest, ... a hard throw," Valentine said in disbelief. "... what a fabulous play."

Piazza, who went 3-for-3 with a walk, hit his 11th homer of the season and second since joining the Mets in the fifth off Dennis Springer (2-10) to give the Mets a 3-0 lead.

The Mets have had 21 one-hitters, most recently David Cone's against St. Louis in 1991. Cone was the last Mets' pitcher to take a no-hitter into the eighth inning, and Reed was the first to take one into the seventh since Armando Reynoso last year.

"It would have been great to be the first one," Reed said.

Reed coasted through the first four innings, striking out six. He went to a 3-2 count on McGriff, who fouled off two pitches before ripping a line drive through the box that Reed snagged.

Springer, who leads the majors in losses, gave up five runs and three hits in five innings.

Notes: San Diego is the other team still without a no-hitter. ... The Mets have eight shutouts this season. They had eight in all of 1997. ... One of the two buses taking the Devil Rays to the airport on Sunday caught fire, forcing players to scamper to safety. "You can laugh now," said Dave Martinez. "But we weren't laughing coming off the bus." ... Tampa Bay's Paul Sorrento made his first start in left field since June 6, 1993, with Cleveland. ... Former commissioner Fay Vincent sat in the first row next to the Mets' dugout.