Piazza Proves Hoffman Isn’t Quite Unbeatable

NEW YORK —  The New York Mets couldn’t come up with a clutch hit, their reliable bullpen failed them and they were facing the most dominant closer in the game. All signs pointed to a four-game losing streak.

Then Mike Piazza’s two-run homer in the ninth inning against Trevor Hoffman bailed them out, giving them a 4-3 victory over the San Diego Padres.

“Most of the time he’ll get the best of me,” Piazza said of Hoffman, who had 53 saves in 54 opportunities last year. “I’ll enjoy this one. They are few and far between against him.”

It has been a long time since the Padres saw anything like what happened at Shea Stadium. They had won 188 consecutive games--181 in the regular season and seven in the playoffs--in which they led after eight innings dating to July 24, 1996.

Hoffman (0-2) entered the ninth with a 3-2 lead and gave up a single to John Olerud. That brought up Piazza.

Hoffman threw a high fastball that Piazza hit over the right-center-field fence for his third homer of the year. Piazza stood at the plate as the ball sailed over the wall, and raised both arms before beginning his home-run trot.

“I decided I wasn’t going to let him get me in a hole,” Piazza said. “He just gave me a pitch that I liked and I did what I could with it.”