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Maine picks up 12th win in short work

Jul 29, 2007 - 8:35 PM FLUSHING, New York (Ticker) -- When the New York Mets want to avoid losing streaks, having John Maine scheduled to start helps immensely.

Maine allowed a hit in five innings and the Mets got significant contributions throughout their lineup in a 5-0 rain-shortened victory over the Washington Nationals on Sunday afternoon.

The game was called following a 91-minute delay that stopped in the bottom of the fifth inning.

With the win, the Mets salvaged a split of the four-game series and won for the seventh time in 11 games. They also improved to 9-3 after a loss when Maine starts dating back to last season.

Maine (12-5) has six of those wins and Sunday was among his finest efforts of his tenure with the Mets, which began last May against Washington. On a rainy afternoon at Shea Stadium, he allowed just a one-out bloop single to Ronnie Belliard in the first inning and struck out five without a walk.

The righthander's outing continued an impressive campaign against the Nationals this season, holding them without a run in 12 innings. He has also yielded four hits and fanned 13 batters.

After Belliard's base hit, the righthander retired the final 14 hitters and became the third 12-game winner in the National League. He finished with 44 strikes on 62 pitches.

While Maine was shutting down the Nationals, his teammates were doing several things right at the plate. The Mets were without Carlos Beltran, who missed his sixth straight game with a quad injury and Paul Lo Duca, who sat out with a right hamstring injury.

Without their starting center fielder and catcher, New York still managed nine hits in the first four innings and a 5-0 lead.

Jose Reyes, whose batting average had dipped below .300 for the first time since early April, scored the first two runs on RBI singles by Lastings Milledge and David Wright in the first and third innings, respectively.

Ramon Castro replaced Lo Duca and had a pair of hits. One was a long two-run homer to center field in the fourth, which gave New York a four-run advantage.

The Mets scored three runs in the fourth. After Castro's seventh home run, Wright delivered his second RBI single of the game.

An inning later, the rain that had been steadily falling caused the delay that would shorten the contest.

The Nationals set a season low in hits for the second straight day. In the opener of Saturday's doubleheader, they managed just three hits and Sunday they were blanked for the seventh time this season.

Billy Traber (2-2) made his second start with Washington and allowed five runs and eight hits in 3 2/3 innings.

A 2000 first-round draft pick of the Mets, Traber was knocked out after issuing a walk to Milledge, which immediately preceded Wright's second run-scoring hit.