Mets End Japan Series With Win

A pinch-hit grand slam to dead center in the top of the 11th by Benny Agbayani pulled the New York Mets out of a 1-1 deadlock with the Chicago Cubs in their second game in the Tokyo Dome Thursday. New York won 5-1.

The ball hit a railing behind the fence over the 406-foot mark, and it took a moment before it was ruled a home run.

The Cubs went down in order in the bottom of the 11th, giving the Mets a split of their historic two-game series in Japan. Chicago won Wednesday, 5-3.

The New York Mets are sure glad they decided to take Benny Agbayani on this little detour.

In a game featuring strange sights — Rey Ordonez making an error, and Cubs manager Don Baylor not shaking hands with counterpart Bobby Valentine — perhaps the oddest one was Agbayani hitting the first slam of the 21st century.

Agbayani recently was told he would be sent to Triple-A Norfolk on April 9, when Glendon Rusch is promoted to be the Mets' No. 5 starter. Agbayani did not take the demotion well, and asked for a trade.

But the Mets, having room for an extra player, took the Hawaiian-born Agbayani to Japan anyway

Agbayani's two-out drive to dead center field made it a disappointing major league debut for loser Danny Young (0-1).

Young emerged from the bullpen — located underneath the stands, near the dugout — to pitch the 11th after nine years in the minors. He retired the first two batters, but Todd Zeile singled, and walks to Ordonez and Melvin Mora loaded the bases for Agbayani.

In Japan, hits that end the game in the bottom half of an inning are called "sayonara" hits. Agbayani's blow did not qualify for that title, not that it mattered to him or the Mets.

The Cubs stranded a pair of runners in the ninth and left the bases loaded in the 10th when Dennis Cook struck out Henry Rodriguez. Cook (1-0) was the winner.

Kyle Farnsworth threw the first pitch at 7:10 p.m. local time — making it 5:10 a.m. in New York and 4:10 a.m. in Chicago.

While the Cubs and Mets were playing for real, a world away it was still spring training. Back in the United States, exhibitions were set for later in the day at places such as Vero Beach and Clearwater, Fla., and Tucson, Ariz.

The crowd was announced as another sellout at 55,000, yet once again it was relatively quiet inside the Tokyo Dome. Games in Japan usually feature frenzied fans carrying drums and horns — to the disappointment of the Cubs and Mets, they were discouraged from such behavior by local officials.

There was a dramatic improvement, though, in the dirt on the mound and batter's boxes. Players on both teams complained about the foreign soil after the Cubs' 5-3 win in Wednesday night's opener and, after a spirited effort by the grounds crew, the problems seemed solved.

Ordonez's streak of 101 straight games without an error, a major league record streak for shortstops, ended when he charged in and overran Damon Buford's roller in the first inning.

I was his first error since last June 13 against Boston, a span in which he cleanly handled 418 chances.

The three-time Gold Glove showed no ill effects, however, later making a nifty play up the middle on Sammy Sosa's grounder and taking part in two double plays. The Mets turned six DPs in the series.

But Zeile, the newcomer to New York's slick infield, made a wild throw to set up an unearned run in the fifth that made it 1-all.

A pair of walks and a sacrifice by pitcher Rick Reed led to Rickey Henderson's sacrifice fly in the fifth.

The evening got off to an odd start during the pregame introductions, surely a carryover from opening night when Valentine filed a protest with one strike left in the game.

The Mets were announced first tonight, and then it was the Cubs' turn to line up.

Baylor trotted out of the dugout to the first-base side and Valentine seemed to lean in his direction to shake hands, as they had done the previous night. But Baylor just stood there and Valentine gave a "oh, well" look and walked away.

Valentine lodged the protest after Baylor mistakenly left off backup shortstop Jeff Huson from his lineup card. Valentine said he wanted to make sure Huson was on the 25-man roster and, finding out immediately after the game that Huson was eligible, dropped the protest.

Both teams, which arrived in Japan last Saturday, were to leave on Friday.

The Cubs planned an early workout at the Tokyo Dome — the ballpark was needed at night for the opener between the Hiroshima Carp and Tokyo Yomiuri Giants — before heading back to Chicago for a short stay.

The Cubs next play at Cincinnati on Monday while the Mets will be home that day to face San Diego. Kevin Tapani will start for Chicago and Al Leiter will work for the Mets. Both pitchers stayed in the United States this week so that they would be well-rested.

©2000 CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report