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Mets fall to Dodgers, 5-4

BY DAVID LENNON | Newsday Staff Writer

7:47 AM EDT, May 7, 2008

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LOS ANGELES - Ryan Church was the only one inside Dodger Stadium that did not see the baseball and yet he was the closest person to it. Church sat on the dirt warning track, momentarily stunned by his collision with the wall, as the screaming crowd of 43,927 cheered on Blake DeWitt's frenzied dash around the bases.

What finally snapped Church out of his trance was first-base umpire Jim Joyce, who was waving his arms frantically to signal that the ball, which smacked off the top edge of the rightfield wall, was indeed still in play. Time was running out.

Church finally scrambled to his feet, scooped up the ball and fired a throw that eventually rolled to the plate. But DeWitt finished his inside-the-park home run without as much as a tag from catcher Brian Schneider and that fifth-inning oddity was the difference in the Mets' 5-4 loss to the Dodgers. A day earlier, DeWitt, the rookie third baseman, hit his first home run in more conventional fashion over the fence rather than off it.

"It took me a second because I rolled onto my back; I was dazed or something," said Church, who nearly made the leaping catch. "I thought it was gone. I thought it was out. I was like, 'Where's the ball?' By the time I looked up, it was too late."

The Mets, who dropped their second straight to LA and have now lost four of six, also looked confused for most of the night. They went 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position and most of those blown chances came during the first four innings against Dodgers starter Hiroki Kuroda.

Kuroda was vulnerable early on, when the Mets took a 4-1 lead despite stranding eight in the process. Once reliever Hong Chih-Kuo entered in the fourth, with two runners on and one out, they realized their mistake. Kuo struck out Carlos Delgado and Angel Pagan to finish that inning and did not allow a hit before handing the ball over to Jonathan Broxton for the eighth.

Broxton allowed a two-out double to Church, but froze David Wright with a 97-mph fastball. Closer Takashi Saito gave up a pair of two-out singles in the ninth inning before getting Luis Castillo to look at a curve ball for strike three as the Dodgers won for the 11th time in 12 games.

"Way too many missed opportunities," manager Willie Randolph said. "You set yourself up for a fall when you get that many opportunities early and don't take advantage of it. It's no secret. We've got to start swinging the bats better."

Church smacked his fifth homer in the first inning, but grounded into a 1-2-3 double play with the bases loaded and none out in the second. David Wright struck out three times and has whiffed five times in his last eight at-bats.

Carlos Beltran, who was among the group that showed up for early batting practice yesterday, turned out to a late scratch because of flu-like symptoms. He struck out against Broxton as a pinch hitter in the eighth.

"When you see the Dodgers, everything seems to be going their way," said Nelson Figueroa, who threw 104 pitches over five innings and took the loss. "That's what winning baseball looks like. Right now, we're pressing. Everyone wants to step up and be the guy to right the ship, but it takes more than one guy."

Randolph refused to officially announce last night's lineup until hearing from Moises Alou, who didn't get to the clubhouse yesterday until 4:45 p.m. Still in his street clothes, Alou walked straight into the manager's office and emerged with a smile on his face. Asked if he was playing, Alou replied, "You were waiting for me, too?"

Randolph wants to take it slow with the 41-year-old Alou, who just returned from a two-month stay on the disabled list. But when Alou does get the green light, there's no holding him back. That was evident in the third inning, when the hustling Alou probably made Randolph nervous with his aggressiveness on the basepaths.

Alou reached on DeWitt's error, then sprinted from first to third on Delgado's single to centerfield. After coming in hard with a headfirst slide, Alou needed a few minutes to compose himself and walked around the coach's box to catch his breath. He didn't have very long to rest.

Two outs later, Alou was part of a double-steal with Castillo. And when the throw went through to second base, Alou bolted for home. Shortstop Chin-lung Hu cut off the throw, but double-clutched before firing to the plate and Alou again went headfirst to score on a daring play that wasn't even that close.

Alou popped up, slapped hands with an excited Jose Reyes in the on-deck circle and received a hero's welcome when he returned to the dugout. It was the Mets' first steal of home since Beltran did it on Aug. 10, 2005 in San Diego and marked the fourth time for Alou, whose last one came in 2006 with the Giants.