Final Score: New York 4, Arizona 3

Flushing, NY (Sports Network) - Raul Gonzalez snapped a tie with an RBI double in the bottom of the eighth as the New York Mets rallied to beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 4-3, in the opener of a three-game series at Shea Stadium. Mike Piazza, who sat out Thursday's game against Houston with a sore groin, went 3-for-4 with a run scored for the Mets, who have won three in a row and four of five.

Luis Gonzalez homered for the Diamondbacks, who have dropped two straight and three of four.

After trailing by three runs early, New York answered with a pair of runs in the fourth and one more in the sixth to make it a 3-3 game.

The Mets then scored a two-out run off Arizona reliever Oscar Villarreal in the bottom of the seventh to take their first lead of the contest. After retiring the first two batters, Villarreal surrendered a double to Piazza and then intentionally walked Mo Vaughn to face Raul Gonzalez, who promptly ripped a double into the left-center field gap to score Piazza and give New York a 4-3 lead.

Villarreal then intentionally walked Timo Perez to reload the bases and escaped further damage by getting Ty Wigginton to fly out.

Beleagured Mets closer Armando Benitez walked leadoff hitter David Dellucci to start the ninth. Dellucci then stole second and went to third on pinch-hitter Steve Finley's grounder to second. But Benitez nailed down his eighth save by getting Craig Counsell on an infield pop-up and retiring Junior Spivey on a grounder to short.

Mike Stanton (1-2) earned the victory in relief of starter Steve Trachsel. Stanton struck out one and walked one in two scoreless innings of work.

Villarreal (1-1) allowed one run on two hits over two innings in taking the loss. He walked two and struck out two.

Arizona struck first in the contest, scoring three times off Trachsel in the top of the fourth. Luis Gonzalez started the scoring with his seventh home run of the season, a solo shot to right field. One out later, Danny Bautista singled and came around to score on a Carlos Baerga double to make it a 2-0 game.

Counsell capped the scoring in the frame with an RBI single that made it 3-0.

The Mets pulled within 3-2 in the bottom half of the fourth on RBI singles by Timo Perez and Ty Wigginton.

New York tied it at 3-3 in the bottom of the sixth. Vaughn led off the frame with a walk and went to second on Raul Gonzalez's groundout to third. Perez then struck out swinging, but Arizona starter Miguel Batista's 0-2 pitch eluded catcher Chad Moeller to allow Perez to reach safely and Vaughn to advance to third.

Wigginton was retired on an infield pop-up for the second out, but pinch- hitter Tony Clark delivered a single to center that scored Vaughn with the tying run.

With runners on first and third with two outs, Batista was replaced by Stephen Randolph, who got out of the jam by getting Roberto Alomar to fly out to left field.

Game Notes

Trachsel, who has recorded his third straight no-decision, allowed three runs on nine hits while striking out five and walking two over six innings...Batista, who was handed a 10-game suspension by the league on Friday for participating in a fighting incident during an April 20 game at St. Louis, surrendered three runs on five hits over 5 2/3 innings. He walked four and struck out three. Batista appealed the penalty to make Friday night's start...Arizona starters had gone 18 straight innings without allowing a run before Batista surrendered two in the fourth...Arizona had won its previous five games at Shea Stadium.

04/25 22:41:22 ET