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DeWitt's inside-the-park homer leads Dodgers past Mets

May 7, 2008 - 6:22 AM LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- Rookie Blake DeWitt hit a two-run, inside-the-park home run and Hong-Chih Kuo was impressive in relief as the Los Angeles Dodgers posted a 5-4 victory over the New York Mets on Tuesday.

DeWitt, who also had a two-run single in the third, helping the Dodgers to their 10th win in the last 11 games.

With the Dodgers trailing, 4-3, Russell Martin kept the fifth inning alive with a two-out single off Nelson Figueroa before the wackiness began.

DeWitt drilled a ball to right field that hit off the glove of a leaping Ryan Church, caromed off the wall and back into play. Church apparently thought it was a home run and did not immediately get up to retrieve the ball.

That allowed DeWitt to race around the bases for his second career home run, giving Los Angeles a 5-4 lead.

"I thought the ball was out," Church said. "I guess I was in a daze because I didn't know it was in play until I looked and saw the umpire signaling the ball was in play."

"I got to third fast but it seemed like it took all I had to get home," DeWitt said. "I just kept running and didn't know if the ball was caught."

DeWitt's key hit helped Kuo (2-1) get the win. Kuo relieved starter Hiroki Kuroda and struck out eight in 3 2/3 hitless innings.

"Kuo really helped us out tonight," Martin said. "Nobody could hit him today. Our whole bullpen did a great job shutting them down."

"We were able to get to their starter early, but their bullpen came in and just shut us down," Mets third baseman David Wright said.

Jonathan Broxton threw a scoreless eighth and Takashi Saito extinguished a Mets' rally in the ninth.

Angel Pagan kept the ninth alive with a two-out single to center and Brian Schneider followed with a single, but Saito picked up his fifth save of the season by striking out Luis Castillo looking.

"Our bullpen really did a great job coming in and keeping them from scoring," Dodgers manager Joe Torre said. "This was a good win for us."

The Mets finished just 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position.

"We missed opportunities tonight when their starting pitcher was struggling," Mets manager Willie Randolph said. "We had chances to put them away and didn't."

New York took a 4-1 lead in the third when 41-year-old Moises Alou stole home as part of a double steal. Alou reached on a throwing error and scored when shortstop Chin-lung Hu, who was covering second, hesitated on the return throw home.

The Dodgers cut the lead to 4-3 with a pair of runs in the bottom half of the frame on a bases-loaded, two-run single by DeWitt.

"DeWitt is doing an awesome job, I love the kid," Martin said. "He is the type of guy you want as a teammate."

Church hit a solo home run in the first, and Castillo and Jose Reyes each drove in a run in the second as the Mets built a 3-0 lead.

Juan Pierre cut the lead to 3-1 with an RBI single in the bottom half of the frame.

Figueroa (2-2) allowed five runs and eight hits in five innings. Kuroda yielded four runs - two earned - and eight hits in 3 1/3 innings.