Mets tee off on Nationals

The heart of the New York Mets' lineup made it perfectly clear yesterday it's possible to hit the ball over the wall at RFK Stadium. Over and over again, to all parts of the park.

Carlos Beltran, David Wright, and Cliff Floyd homered in the first inning, and Carlos Delgado later tacked on a two-run shot, all off All-Star Livan Hernandez, starting the Mets on their way to a 13-4 win over the Washington Nationals.

''We always felt that our lineup was great," said Floyd, who hit his first homer of 2006.

Thanks in part to that strong offense, the Mets have won six consecutive games.

Washington, meanwhile, has lost five in a row, outscored, 35-13, in that span. After Wednesday's defeat, veteran Jose Vidro renewed a complaint heard often from the Nationals in the second half of 2005: RFK's dimensions are too big, and that's hurting the home team.

Even Vidro had to chuckle when asked about the irony of the Mets' barrage less than 24 hours after his comments. ''They did score a lot of runs," Vidro said. ''Why can't we do that in the same ballpark?"

New York's Victor Zambrano (1-0) allowed three runs in five innings in his first start of the season.

Giants, 5-3; Astros, 8-0 -- Roy Oswalt pitched 8 1/3 strong innings and Lance Berkman hit his NL-leading fifth and sixth homers of the season, leading Houston past host San Francisco to give the Astros a doubleheader split.

In the first game, Moises Alou hit his 300th career home run and Barry Bonds came close to hitting his first of the year. Bonds, who sat out the nightcap, drove in his first run of the season with a seventh-inning single and also had two deep fly outs. This is the longest Bonds has gone into a season when healthy without a homer since 1998, when he didn't hit one until San Francisco's 13th game.

Yankees 9, Royals 3 -- Randy Johnson won despite lasting only five innings, and New York got home runs from Johnny Damon, Gary Sheffield, and Jason Giambi to polish off a three-game sweep of Kansas City.

The Yankees have won 14 straight home games against the Royals -- a streak that dates to August 2002. The loss matched the Royals' record for consecutive defeats in an opposing ballpark, set at Detroit's Tiger Stadium from August 1987 to May 1990.

Johnson (2-1) was pulled after 87 pitches, but general manager Brian Cashman said it was not for medical reasons.

Mariners 9, Indians 5 -- Ichiro Suzuki and Jose Lopez each hit two-run homers to help visiting Seattle rally past Cleveland.

The Indians led, 5-3, after five innings but three Seattle relievers combined to throw 4 1/3 shutout innings, allowing five hits and no walks. The Mariners won the final two games of the three-game series.

White Sox 13, Tigers 9 -- Jim Thome homered in his fourth straight game to help visiting Chicago beat Detroit.

Despite three hits, including a homer, from red-hot Chris Shelton, the Tigers fell to 5-4 after winning their first five games. Shelton is hitting .514 with a 1.297 slugging percentage.

Twins 8, Athletics 2 -- Torii Hunter hit a two-run homer, Kyle Lohse threw six innings for his first win, and host Minnesota finished a three-game sweep of Oakland to rebound from a season-opening 1-5 road trip.

Brewers 4, Cardinals 3 -- Carlos Lee hit a tiebreaking home run off Jason Isringhausen in the 11th inning, minutes after making a pair of game-saving catches at the left-field wall, helping Milwaukee avoid a three-game sweep in St. Louis.

Phillies 7, Braves 6 -- Chase Utley hit his first two homers of the season and had four RBIs, helping Philadelphia win its third straight series at Atlanta's Turner Field.

Orioles 6, Devil Rays 5 -- Melvin Mora hit a go-ahead two-run homer during a three-run ninth inning to lift visiting Baltimore over Tampa Bay.

Marlins 9, Padres 2 -- Dewon Brazelton gave up eight runs in four-plus innings and fell to 0-16 lifetime on the road when Florida routed San Diego.

Rockies 5, Diamondbacks 3 -- Brad Hawpe homered for the fourth straight game -- matching the third-longest streak in club history -- to lead visiting Colorado.

Reds 8, Cubs 3 -- Adam Dunn hit a solo homer, and Felipe Lopez and Austin Kearns added three-run shots to lead Cincinnati over Chicago at Wrigley Field.