Mets make statement vs. lefty Kuo By JOSH THOMSON THE JOURNAL NEWS (Original publication: October 6, 2006) NEW YORK — For their Game 2 starter, the Dodgers had their pick. Start Greg Maddux, he of the 333 wins and the Hall of Fame future, or hard-throwing Brad Penny, the man who started the All-Star Game this summer with searing fastball after searing fastball. Instead, L.A. tabbed plan C, Hong-Chih Kuo, the 25-year-old rookie who had one big-league victory and exactly zero playoff experience before last night. But the Dodgers' thinking was this: the left-handed Kuo had something the others didn't — a shutout win over the Mets this year. Surprisingly, Cliff Floyd didn't see the decision as a slap in the face. Floyd knew the Mets hit .254 against left-handers this season, and he thought pitching Kuo was good managing. "I think it was a good move by Grady (Little), believe it or not," Floyd said following last night's 4-1 Mets win. "I believe in matchups in baseball. He pitched well against us the first time and they wanted to come in here and try and steal one." There was no stealing last night, not even by Jose Reyes. Kuo pitched 4 1/3 mostly strong innings, but the Mets did enough to dispel the myth of the rookie as a Met killer. They took a lead in the third on an RBI groundout by Reyes, then added to it on Paul Lo Duca's fifth-inning sacrifice fly. Jose Valentin, who drew a leadoff walk off Kuo in the fifth and scored the eventual game-winning run on the sac fly, said the team focused on letting Kuo waste pitches. Valentin did just that himself in the fifth, taking four balls out of the strike zone after falling behind in the count 0-and-2. "I knew he liked to get people out with his slider," Valentin said. "I knew if I got a fastball I could just foul it off and sit on his slider." To a man, the Dodgers felt Kuo met their expectations last night. Indeed, he allowed just two runs and four hits, but he was outpitched by Tom Glavine, who threw six scoreless innings. Both Kuo and his catcher, Russell Martin, said Kuo's command of his fastball was off compared to Sept. 8, when he threw six scoreless innings against the Mets in the first start of his big-league career. "It didn't matter if I had bad stuff or not," Kuo said. "I just have to try and help the team win." Martin felt he had. "He kept us in the game," Martin said. "I thought he did a good job today." The Mets did too, but don't blame them if they puffed their chests out after scoring those two runs. They have heard for the last month that they couldn't beat a lefty starter, that Kuo loomed if they faced the Dodgers in the playoffs. As he buttoned his shirt in the clubhouse after the game, Valentin was asked what it was like to hear about having to face Kuo for the last month. Valentin felt the two cases were very different. He said the Mets were naturally more focused against Kuo this time when their stranglehold over the National League no longer mattered. Likewise, Valentin felt the dynamics of the situation — the margin in the series, the lively Shea Stadium crowd — factored against Kuo pitching as well as he had against the Mets in September. Kuo did have mistakes on a night where the margin of error was small: the leadoff walk, a wild pitch to Glavine, a fielding gaffe on an Endy Chavez bunt. "When you're in (the Dodgers') situation, there's no tomorrow," Valentin said. Maybe not for long. -- 我的可愛女兒們 http://www.flickr.com/photos/xiecollen/ --

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