Mets Beat Dodgers 5-2

Friday, August 24th 2007, 9:25 pm

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) _ Oliver Perez outpitched Los Angeles Dodgers ace Brad Penny, and the New York Mets got a dazzling all-around performance from David Wright in a 5-2 victory Friday night.

Wright homered, drove in two runs and made a pair of outstanding defensive plays at third base. Ruben Gotay hit an RBI double in the first inning, and New York's shaky bullpen bounced back from a rough series against San Diego.

Perez (12-8) tossed seven shutout innings, allowing three hits and overcoming five walks. He escaped a bases-loaded jam in the first, struck out six and threw 119 pitches to win his second consecutive start.

That was enough to beat Penny (14-4), who lasted six innings against a familiar nemesis. The big right-hander fell to 5-11 against the Mets in his career, and 1-9 in 11 starts at Shea Stadium.

Handed a four-run lead in the ninth, Billy Wagner gave up three singles to load the bases with one out before pitching coach Rick Peterson came out for a visit. Jeff Kent hit a sacrifice fly, and Wagner struck out Andre Ethier with runners at the corners to end it.

The star closer blew a save in Thursday night's loss to the Padres _ after giving up the go-ahead run in the ninth inning Tuesday night before the Mets rallied to win.

Jose Reyes scored twice and got his major league-leading 69th stolen base for the NL East leaders, who had just lost two of three to the Padres in a potential playoff preview

The Dodgers, swept by New York in the first round of last year's postseason, failed to come through with runners on base all night. They broke through for a run in the eighth against New York's inconsistent bullpen, but couldn't put together the big rally they needed.

Ethier's high-fly double to deep left-center off Jorge Sosa put runners at second and third with one out. Russell Martin walked to load the bases, and left-hander Pedro Feliciano relieved for New York.

Pinch-hitter Ramon Martinez hit an RBI groundout, and Shea Hillenbrand lined out to Wright with runners at second and third to end the inning with the Mets up 3-1.

Hillenbrand flipped his bat away in frustration and fired his helmet to the ground. Los Angeles stranded 12 runners and lost for the third time in nine games.

Carlos Beltran drew a leadoff walk from Scott Proctor in the bottom half and scored on a single by Lastings Milledge. Pinch-hitter Marlon Anderson added a sacrifice fly to make it 5-1.

Reyes opened the third with a double and scored on Wright's single. In the fifth, Wright sliced a 3-2 pitch from Penny barely over the wall in the right-field corner. His 23rd home run gave New York a 3-0 cushion.

Wright is 9-for-14 with two homers and six RBIs against Penny in his career.

The third baseman also made two excellent fielding plays in the sixth.

First, Ethier hit a chopper that deflected off Perez's glove toward Wright, who rushed in and reached behind him to grab the ball in his bare hand. In one motion, he made an athletic, off-balance throw to first.

Wright then robbed James Loney of a hit with a diving stop to his left for the third out.

Notes: Mets 2B Luis Castillo didn't start after tweaking his tender right knee Thursday night. Manager Willie Randolph said he didn't think it was serious, and expected Castillo to be able to play Saturday. Gotay started at second base in place of Castillo. ... Dodgers RHP Brett Tomko was designated for assignment to make room on the roster for LHP David Wells.