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Hernandez helps Diamondbacks to rare home win over Mets

May 7, 2007 - 1:55 AM PHOENIX (Ticker) -- Livan Hernandez shut down the New York Mets and helped the Arizona Diamondbacks end a dubious home losing streak.

Hernandez allowed just one run in seven strong innings as the Diamondbacks snapped a 13-game home losing streak to the Mets and avoided a sweep with a 3-1 victory on Sunday.

The 32-year-old righthander retired eight of the first 10 batters he faced and led, 1-0, thanks to an RBI groundout by Stephen Drew in the first inning.

The performance by Hernandez (3-1) was sorely needed. Arizona, which snapped a season-high five-game losing streak, had been outscored, 104-29, during the 13-game skid against New York dating to May 11, 2004.

"It's more that we needed to win a game now," Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin said of the home losing streak to the Mets. "After that, yeah. You hate to see that. That's a scary streak. There are football games you don't get like that - streaks against teams - so it's nice to get that over with. "I think (Hernandez) was real excited about taking the ball today and shut down all these streaks or whatever was going on. (Whatever) it was to these guys here, it's a type of game that really challenges him and he came up big for us."

Hernandez, who threw 124 pitches in his last start, allowed just one run and six hits in seven innings with three strikeouts, and threw 66 of 105 pitches for strikes.

"I knew I had to go and do my job and try to win, because it's very important to try to get out of the slump right now," Hernandez said. Carlos Quentin gave Arizona the lead for good, breaking out of a 2-for-15 slump with a go-ahead RBI double in the fourth that scored Eric Byrnes.

Byrnes went 2-for-2 and helped end the streak by legging out a double to get into scoring position for Quentin.

"They took it to us for three days in a row," Byrnes said. "I think we had to make a statement today. We weren't going to roll over for these guys. We kind of had to stand up for ourselves." Brandon Lyon pitched a scoreless eighth and closer Jose Valverde worked around a one-out walk to notch his 11th save. Ruben Gotay lined out, and Carlos Beltran, who was given the day off, appeared as a pinch hitter and popped out to third to end the game.

Orlando Hudson went 0-for-3, but walked in the first to stretch his streak for getting on base to 33, the third-longest in franchise history.

Meanwhile, Mets rookie Mike Pelfrey (0-4) lost despite turning in his second respectable performance. Pelfrey allowed three runs and three hits in 5 1/3 innings but walked four.

The ninth overall pick in 2005 allowed just one run in the first despite loading the bases thanks to a pair of walks. Pelfrey induced an RBI groundout and a popout to end the inning.

"He started out a little shaky," Mets manager Willie Randolph said of Pelfrey. "Overall, I think he threw pretty well. He had a little trouble getting out of the first inning or two but nothing major, no big deal. He's not giving up five or six runs. He's keeping the damage down to a minimum and he'll get better at it."

The Mets tied the game at 1-1 in the fourth. Endy Chavez, starting in center field for Beltran, had a leadoff double and came around to score on a single by Ramon Castro.

Chavez had two hits for New York, which had its four-game winning streak snapped. Despite the loss the Mets were satisfied with taking the series as they head to San Francisco to finish off their seven-game road trip.

"It was the first leg of the trip, we'll take three out of four and head to San Francisco," Randolph said.