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Mets' Maine goes into 9th on eve of 27th birthday

BY DAVID LENNON | david.lennon@newsday.com

May 8, 2008

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LOS ANGELES - John Maine was only two outs away from giving himself an early birthday present yesterday at Dodger Stadium. But after he labored in the ninth inning, manager Willie Randolph emerged from the dugout to snatch it from his hands.

How's this for coincidence? Maine turns 27 today, but he couldn't reach that magic number in the Mets' 12-1 rout of the Dodgers at Chavez Ravine. He needed only 85 pitches through seven innings, and after seven more in the eighth, Maine appeared to be set up for his first complete game since a four-hit shutout against the Astros on July 21, 2006.

But Andruw Jones, hitting only .182, led off with a soft double past the outstretched glove of Luis Castillo, who missed the catch by inches. Maine then walked Juan Pierre and leftfielder Endy Chavez made a nice running catch on Andre Ethier's slicing fly ball.

At that point, Maine appeared to be on fumes. After a first-pitch changeup to Kemp, he fired four straight fastballs, and Kemp finally slapped a two-strike single. That ended the shutout and Maine's day, but he did become the staff's first pitcher to make it beyond the seventh inning this season. The Mets were the only team left without one before yesterday.

Too often this season, a trip to the mound for Randolph has not been a pleasant experience. That was not the case this time.

"I just told him, 'Way to go,'" Randolph said. "Way to pick us up. We need to do more of that. I'm real proud of him."

It was Maine's third straight win, with a 2.33 ERA during that stretch, and he allowed only three hits before Jones' bloop. Maine did not give up a hit until Chin-lung Hu's one-out double in the third and he also stranded James Loney after his leadoff double in the fifth.

For all his pitching heroics, however, Maine was most proud of his two-run single off Brad Penny in the fifth. With the count 0-and-2, Penny threw him an 81-mph curveball, and Maine reached out to poke the single into center. Asked about the hit afterward, Maine smiled, saying, "I've got a batting average now, and [Mike] Pelfrey doesn't."

Sounds like he didn't leave the game empty-handed after all.

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