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Wells pitches Dodgers past Mets

Aug 27, 2007 - 4:29 AM By Larry Fleisher PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

FLUSHING, New York (Ticker) - David Wells thought his career was over, but on Sunday night he was back in a pennant race and showed that he might have something left to contribute.

Wells pitched five innings and also scored a run as the Los Angeles Dodgers salvaged the finale of their three-game series at Shea Stadium with a 6-2 victory over the first-place New York Mets.

Designated for assignment by the San Diego Padres earlier this month, Wells did little pitching-related activities at his San Diego home other than playing catch with his children and hoped for a phone call from another team.

"I felt good out there," Wells said. "I've been doing this for a long time. It's a big game, give me the ball. Big night, national TV, I wasn't expecting to do this well. I was just trying to keep my team in the ballgame."

That call came Friday when the Dodgers signed him as a free agent to take the place of Brett Tomko, who was designated for assignment.

Pitching for his ninth team, Wells did not disappoint as Los Angeles concluded a 3-3 road trip and won for the seventh time in 11 games.

"The guy was outstanding out there," Los Angeles manager Grady Little said. "We knew we would get a competitive outing from him, we were unsure of just how much."

"His cutter was really sharp," Dodgers catcher Mike Lieberthal said. "All his pitches, he was throwing strikes with and so that surprised me from a guy (who had three weeks off). He used all his pitches tonight, he used his cutter a lot, obviously his curveball, which is his best pitch."

Wells' performance also enabled the Dodgers (67-63) to gain ground in both the wild card and National League West races as they moved within 3 1/2 games of San Diego and 6 1/2 of Arizona.

Wells allowed a two-run double in the third to David Wright among seven hits. He also helped limit the damage in the third when he picked Wright off second and escaped a bases-loaded jam with two outs in the fifth.

The 44-year-old lefthander was one strike away from a perfect fifth but gave up an infield single to Lastings Milledge and issued consecutive walks to Wright and Carlos Beltran. Wells rebounded and struck out Moises Alou on three pitches, with the last pitch a 68-mph curveball.

"I was going to throw the whole at-bat curveballs," Wells said. "I just made up my mind and he (Lieberthal) just kept putting curveball down. In that situation, you get ahead in the count, you don't want to throw him a strike."

"That's what we brought him in for and that's what he did a nice job of," Little said.

Wells struck out two, walked three and threw 48 of 73 pitches for strikes. He also improved to 6-1 lifetime against the Mets and recorded his first victory since July 16 against New York in San Diego.

Wells became the oldest pitcher to start for the Dodgers since their move from Brooklyn following the 1957 season and the sixth in the Los Angeles era to make a start after turning 40th birthday.

He also helped Los Angeles rally from a 2-1 deficit when he opened the fifth with his third career bunt single. Wells moved to second on a base hit by Rafael Furcal, took third on a forceout and scored the tying run on Matt Kemp's single.

"That's what you try to do, you try to spark something going," Wells said. "I'm the last guy who's going to do that."

"We don't really know him well enough to call for something like that," Little said of Wells' bunt. "But it was a good time and it turned out good."

Los Angeles went ahead on Ramon Martinez's double to right and added three unearned runs in the sixth.

Two batters after a fielding error by New York first baseman Jeff Conine, Luis Gonzalez batted for Wells and capped an 11-pitch at-bat with an RBI single, Juan Pierre lined a run-scoring single off Scott Schoeneweis and Kemp reached on an RBI infield hit.

Rudy Seanez pitched a perfect sixth but Joe Beimel struggled in the seventh. After striking out pinch hitter Shawn Green, Jose Reyes reached on an infield single, advanced to second on third baseman Shea Hillebrand's throwing error and stole his 71st base.

Milledge drew a four-pitch walk, putting runners at the corners, and Jonathan Broxton replaced Beimel. He fanned Wright as Milledge stole second and retired Beltran on a groundout.

Broxton also pitched a scoreless eighth and Takashi Saito finished up for the Dodgers.

The Mets lost just the fourth time in their last 13 games and received a shaky outing from John Maine, who has just one of his 13 victories in his last five starts.

"I felt great out there," Maine said. "I made pitches when I had to. I felt I did everything I could to keep the team close and they did a good job battling, hitting the ball and putting the ball where they wanted to."

Maine lasted 5 2/3 innings and allowed six runs - three earned - and a season-high nine hits.

The Mets stranded nine and also only had six runners in scoring position. They also wasted an opportunity to go ahead in the first when Milledge ran through a stop sign by third base coach Sandy Alomar Jr. and was caught in a rundown on Wright's first double of the night.

"I saw him wave," Milledge said. "I saw him stop me at the last minute."

Before the Dodgers rallied, they had a scary moment when Maine plunked second baseman Jeff Kent on the helmet in the fourth. Kent left the game with what Little said was a headache.

The Dodgers expect him to play Monday against Washington.