PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- Tom Glavine had his third straight strong start and Jeromy Burnitz belted a two-run homer as the New York Mets snapped a six-game losing streak with a 3-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Glavine (2-1) allowed one run and three hits in 6 1/3 innings, providing the steady pitching the Mets expected when they signed him to a three-year, $35 million contract during the offseason. He has yielded just two runs in 18 innings in three starts since a 15-2 loss to the Chicago Cubs on Opening Day.
"I won't say that I don't feel good about it," said the veteran lefthander, who improved to 19-12 lifetime against the Pirates. "Tonight was a good all-around team effort. My job is to give us a chance. I felt like I did that."
"Tommy has just pitched a heck of a game tonight," New York manager Art Howe said. "He did what he does best, move the ball around and changed speeds. It's nice to have Glavine on your side, he's just professional."
The Mets' battered bullpen also came through, including closer Armando Benitez. The struggling righthander, who blew three leads in his last four appearances, worked around a hit and a walk in the ninth and notched his fourth save.
"It bothered me a little bit," Benitez said of his recent failures. "No excuses. I didn't have to worry about it, that's part of the game. Art Howe made me feel confident. (He) told me I can do the job. When I got to the mound, Robby Alomar (told me that) the team knows I can do the job. I want to be in the tough situations, that's important for me."
Benitez's teammates were happy to see him get back on track.
"Probably as big as anything else was to get Armando out there to do his job, get him back to feeling good about himself," Glavine said.
Cliff Floyd also drove in a run for the Mets, who recorded their first victory since a 4-2 triumph at Florida on April 8. They were outscored 22-8 in dropping all four games to the Montreal Expos in Puerto Rico.
Starter Josh Fogg (1-2) drove in Pittsburgh's lone run with a single in the second but the righthander took the loss after permitting three runs - two earned - and six hits in seven innings.
The Pirates failed to score with the bases loaded in the seventh and stranded two runners in both the eighth and ninth innings en route to their third straight loss.
"We're a good hitting team," Pittsburgh left fielder Reggie Sanders said. "Sometimes you're going to come up against good pitchers. We haven't put it together yet. This team just has to keep fighting. We haven't really played well at home yet. Only one win in the games we've played."
After Fogg recorded his second RBI of the season in the second, Glavine retired the next 13 batters and New York went ahead in the fifth.
Pirates shortstop Abraham Nunez bobbled Ty Wigginton's ground ball and Burnitz blasted Fogg's next pitch 423-feet over the right-center field fence for his second homer of the season.
"Right-center field is a good spot for me to hit it," said Burnitz, who went 3-for-4. "It definitely feels good to get a hit; it put us on top. I would have felt the same if somebody else had done it."
"I got outpitched again," Fogg said. "If I keep the ball in the yard, it is a 1-1 game once again. If I was able to keep the ball down in the strike zone, I'm still in the game. It's the second time in a row I've given up a two-run homer. One pitch and it's two losses in a row, just like the last one."
The Mets added a run in the sixth when Alomar had an infield hit, stole his first base of the season and scored on Floyd's double to right field.
