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Church, Reyes star as Mets pound Yankees

May 19, 2008 - 4:31 AM By Larry Fleisher PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

BRONX, New York (Ticker) - The New York Mets entered the "Subway Series" battling inconsistency and potential controversy. By the time they finished, things were a lot better for manager Willie Randolph and his players.

Ryan Church and Jose Reyes homered as the Mets pulled away for an 11-2 victory over the New York Yankees on Sunday night.

Oliver Perez (4-3) won his second straight start by turning in his longest outing of the season. He lasted 7 2/3 innings and held the Yankees to two runs and just three hits.

The Mets completed their first sweep at Yankee Stadium in the 12-year history of interleague play. They did so after limping into the series having dropped three of four to Washington.

"I'm glad we won," Mets third baseman David Wright said. "We needed the W's (wins). But we've got to keep the thing going. We can't be satisfied with coming here and winning the series. We got more important (series) as far as standings coming up in Atlanta. So I want to keep this intensity and take this momentum and go play the same type of baseball with the same intensity that we played with this weekend."

"It's gratifying to me when my guys start swinging the bat and playing baseball well," Randolph said. "We had a rough couple of games this week and to come in and play well against this team makes me feel good."

The finale of that series was a 1-0 loss on Thursday that saw the Mets commit baserunning blunders to run themselves out of the final two innings and had closer Billy Wagner openly wonder why he was being interviewed by reporters after a game in which he did not play.

Wagner unleashed a pair of expletives during a postgame rant Thursday which led to a Randolph calling a team meeting before Friday's rainout. By the time the series ended, it was the Mets who left the Yankees frustrated.

"They were beating our butts," Yankees left fielder Johnny Damon said. "It was embarrassing."

The Mets roughed up Yankees starter Chien-Ming Wang (6-2) and Ross Ohlendorf with a pair of big innings. They got four runs in the fourth and six more in the eighth.

"It's a big lift," Mets first baseman Carlos Delgado said. "We played pretty good baseball the last couple of days."

The Mets would have had more in that fourth had they not left the bases loaded and had umpires award a three-run home run to Carlos Delgado. After initially awarding the slugger a home run on a ball that ricocheted off the left field foul pole, third base umpire reversed the call and ruled it a foul ball.

Delgado instead capped his at-bat with one out in the inning with an RBI single that staked the Mets to a 4-0 lead.

Hideki Matsui hit a two-run home run for the Yankees, who have dropped eight of 11. They have scored just 31 runs in that span and continued to struggle offensively as Sunday marked the seventh time they failed to score more than three runs.

"I really don't care who we lose to," Yankees captain Derek Jeter said. "I just don't want to lose. It doesn't feel better if you lose to Tampa Bay vs. the Mets. It doesn't make a difference."

Church homered in the fifth for a 5-2 lead before the Mets turned the game into a rout. They scored four runs in the eighth before Reyes deposited an 0-1 pitch into the right-center field seats for an 11-2 edge.

The Mets scored 18 runs in the sweep and also got RBI singles from Alou, Brian Schneider and Luis Castillo.

"We haven't had (clutch hits) two days in a row," Church said. "This is one of the first times that we actually we able to do it."

Wang lasted 7 2/3 innings and was tagged for seven runs and six hits en route to his second straight defeat.

"We went up against one of baseball's best today," Wright said. "First time through the lineup, he threw the ball extremely well and I thought we as an offense did well the second time around (and) made some adjustments."