Jones pitches, hits Mets past Marlins, 8-1

 Mon, Apr 12, 4:28:21PM 
 by Associated Press 

 NEW YORK -- Neither injury nor flood stops the New York Mets from
 winning. 

 The rebuilt Mets came to Shea Stadium for the first time this year, and Bobby
 Jones, Bobby Bonilla and Robin Ventura gave the fans quite a show for the
 home opener. 

 Jones hit his first career home run and beat Florida for the fourth straight time,
 Bonilla went 3-for-3 and Ventura made a pair of sparkling defensive plays as
 the streaking Mets defeated the Marlins 8-1 Monday. 

 Since losing their opener at Miami, the Mets have won six of seven. Their 6-2
 start is their best since 1991. 

 "The whole season is not based on the first two weeks of the year," Jones
 said, "but it's better than being 2-7, of course."

 New York put All-Star catcher Mike Piazza (sprained right knee) and pitcher
 Rick Reed (torn left calf muscle) on the disabled list before the game. 

 And in the middle of the opener, the Mets learned their clubhouse flooded
 because a pump failed. The team spent $200,000 sprucing it up during the
 offseason, and the new carpet was soaked. 

 Manager Bobby Valentine's office, with a new desk the size of a hotel
 reception area, was hit the hardest. 

``Bobby's desk was under water _ Noah's Ark was under water,'' joked
 general manager Steve Phillips, whose own office flooded last week and
 whose phone failed during the game. ``The new dry sauna is now a steam
 room.'' 

 But the play on the field was crisp. 

 Jones (2-0) connected in the fifth off Livan Hernandez (0-2) for his first
 homer in 297 career at-bats, a drive to left that broke a 1-all tie 

 After allowing 14 earned runs in 20 innings during spring training (a 6.30
 ERA) he got his second win a week over the Marlins, giving up one run and
 four hits in seven innings. 

 ``It feels better to do it on opening day,'' Jones said. ``You feel the electricity
                  in the air.'' 

 With a sellout crowd of 52,052 watching on a cool and sunny afternoon,
 Bonilla singled and scored in the second, singled on a infield popup that fell in
 the fourth then hit an RBI single in the fifth. 

 He had opened the season 1-for-17, and lifted his average from .059 to .200
 as he played at Shea in a Mets uniform for the first time in 1995. 

``If you're playing pretty good, they'll cheer you on. If you're playing bad,
 they'll get all over you,'' Bonilla said. ``I have that understanding.'' 

 With Piazza sidelined for at least two weeks, the rest of the Mets must pick
 up their play. 

 ``It's not just Mike doing it all by himself,'' Bonilla said, repeated a message
 he preached to teammates. ``We have some pretty good hitters.''

 Ventura, in his first game at Shea, hit a two-run double and threw out leadoff
 hitter Luis Castillo on bunts in the first and sixth innings, making a pair of
 bare-handed pickups. 

 ``It's a huge difference,'' Jones said. ``It just pumps you up.'' 

 Florida manager John Boles seems awed. 

``Everything we hit down to third base, Ventura killed us,'' he said. ``Any
 chance we had for a rally, he just defensed us right out of it. He's a special
 player.'' 

 Turk Wendell and Rigo Beltran _ recalled from the minors before the game _
 closed out New York's fourth straight win with combined one-hit relief.
 Beltran struck out the side in the ninth. 

 Hernandez, meanwhile, had a special guest watching in the stands, his
 half-brother, New York Yankees pitcher Orlando Hernandez. On Sunday,
 ``El Duque'' took a perfect game into the seventh inning as the Yankees beat
 Detroit. 

 Livan didn't fare as well and lost to the Mets for the second time this year.
 Struggling with his control, he gave up five runs _ four earned _ and six hits in
 4 2-3 innings and walked five. 

``I'm very happy that he was here,'' Livan said through a translator. ``I went
 around town last night with him.'' 

 New York went ahead in the second when rookie shortstop Alex Gonzalez
 threw away the relay on a potential double-play grounder, allowing Bonilla to
 score on the error. 

 Castillo hit a game-tying triple over left fielder Rickey Henderson in the third.
 But Jones' homer started a four-run fifth that included Bonilla's single and
 Ventura's two-run double just over the glove of center fielder Todd
 Dunwoody. 

 Todd Pratt, filling in for Piazza, added an RBI single in the eighth off Kirt
 Ojala and pinch-hitter Mike Kinkade followed with two-run double for his
 first major league hit and RBIs. He had been 0-for-5 in '99 and '98.