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NEW YORK -- Lucas Duda made the Mets look awfully smart, for one night at least. Duda hit a pair of two-run homers only hours after the team gave him the starting job at first base, and New York beat the Cincinnati Reds 4-3 Friday behind Jenrry Mejia for its first victory of the season. "Im just glad to play and contribute any way I can," said the soft-spoken Duda. "Its just one day." Replacement closer Jose Valverde struck out Jay Bruce with two on to end it, and the Mets avoided their first 0-4 start since opening with five consecutive losses in 2005. The 24-year-old Mejia (1-0), who beat out Daisuke Matsuzaka for the final spot in the rotation, struck out a career-high eight in six innings. Flashing a sharp breaking ball, he allowed one run and four hits in a steady rain and mist. "It was a good game for us tonight. We needed it bad," Mets manager Terry Collins said. "Were a better team than weve played." Bruce homered and drove in three runs for the Reds, who had won six straight at Citi Field. Mike Leake (0-1) gave up five hits and three walks in 6 2-3 innings. "It was the Lucas Duda-Jay Bruce show, and Duda won," Leake said. Mets left fielder Eric Young Jr. robbed Brandon Phillips of a home run, and backup catcher Anthony Recker threw out speedy pinch-runner Billy Hamilton trying to steal second for a big out in the eighth. New Yorks maligned bullpen, which compiled a 10.61 ERA during Washingtons three-game sweep to start the season, held on this time behind Valverde and fellow veteran Kyle Farnsworth, who got four outs. The excitable Valverde worked the ninth for his first save with the Mets. He took over as closer when Bobby Parnell went on the disabled list with a partially torn ligament in his right elbow after blowing a save on opening day. "I remember Valverde back in 2009 when he was throwing 99 mph," Bruce said. "He came right at me tonight. I just missed the one pitch and then he finished me off with the splitter. Pretty typical Valverde." Mejia struck out five of his first eight batters and overcame five walks, which matched a career high. His right ankle was wrapped after the game -- Phillips third-inning grounder hit him just above the outside part of his foot -- but he said he was fine. Mejia pounded his glove and pointed to left field when Young robbed Phillips of a first-inning homer. "I was just pumped up," Young said. "It ended up being the difference in the game because it was one run, so it was huge." Bruce put Cincinnati ahead with an RBI single in the third. Curtis Granderson beat the shift in the fourth when he grounded a leadoff double inside third base. Duda drove the next pitch into the Mets bullpen in right-centre for a 2-1 lead. "Sometimes its just about confidence," said Collins, who chose Duda at first over incumbent Ike Davis. "And maybe once in a while, when you feel good about yourself, you can start to do what everybody expects you to do." David Wright opened the sixth with an infield single and, after Bruce robbed Granderson of extra bases with running catch in deep right-centre, Duda ripped a line drive over the fence in right for his fifth career multihomer game. Duda is 6 for 8 against Leake with three extra-base hits. "Hes a guy that sees me well. It didnt help that the two pitches he hit werent quality pitches," Leake said. Bruce cut it to 4-3 in the seventh with a two-run drive off reliever John Lannan. NOTES: Cincinnati rested Hamilton (0 for 12) and SS Zack Cozart (0 for 11). "For no other reason than trying to make sure that our other guys stay sharp," manager Bryan Price said. CF Roger Bernadina drew three walks in his first start for Cincinnati, and Ramon Santiago became the 24th Reds shortstop to play next to Phillips. ... It was the first stolen base attempt of the season for Hamilton, who set a professional baseball record in 2012 with 155 steals combined at Class A Bakersfield and Double-A Pensacola. The only other catcher to throw him out in 15 major league tries was Juan Centeno of the Mets on Sept. 25 last year. ... Mejia threw a career-high 101 pitches. ... Mets RHP Dillon Gee starts Saturday against RHP Johnny Cueto. Ivan Rodriguez Jersey . "Today was a very great day for me. It was always my dream to be good in GS," Wierather said. "I took quite a long time to get there. It feels awesome to have my first win (in GS)." Wierather leads overall with 595 points from Lara Gut (568), who finished second, and Maria Hoefl-Riesch of Germany (535). Washington Nationals Store . The 17-year-old had four goals and four assists in 38 games for Liberec in the Czech pro league this past season. Zacha had three goals and two assists in seven games at the world mens under-18 championship in April when the Czech Republic took the silver medal. https://www.cheapnationals.com/1397r-tre...-nationals.html. The outdoor event will be played on Dec. 31 between alumni of the New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers at Citizens Bank Park, the home of the Philadelphia Phillies. Jonny Venters Jersey . A veteran of 16 NHL seasons, Prospals career was highlighted by him ranking fourth in points scored, third in assists and sixth in games played among all Czech Republic born players in NHL history. Cheap Nationals Jerseys . -- Kyrie Irvings last-minute 3-pointer helped seal another victory for Cleveland -- and the Cavaliers longest winning streak since LeBron James left.COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Relentless is the word Columbus forward Brandon Dubinsky chose to describe the surging Blue Jackets style of play. Dubinsky and Matt Calvert each had a goal and assist to lead Columbus to a team-record eighth-straight win -- the longest active streak in the league -- with a 5-2 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night in the franchises 1,000th game. Jack Johnson, Derek MacKenzie and Nathan Horton also scored for Columbus. The Blue Jackets played their inaugural season in 2000 and has only made the playoffs once, but are finally showing real signs of promise. "Theres a confidence in the room now," coach Todd Richards said. "I think there is an understanding of how we need to play, what we need to do as a group to have success." The offence has come on of late, but the backbone has been Sergei Bobrovsky, last seasons winner of the Vezina Trophy, which goes to the leagues top goalie. Bobrovsky finished with 26 saves in his first game against his former club to earn his seventh win in a row since returning from a groin injury. "Its everybody from Bob all the way out that are contributing," Dubinsky said. The Blue Jackets closed out the Flyers with four straight goals to improve to a league-best 9-0-1 record in January. They are currently holding an Eastern Conference playoff spot. "If you look at the standings we are still right there," Dubinsky said. "By no means can we be satisfied. Obviously its a big accomplishment. We are happy, we are going to enjoy it tonight. We are going to come to work tomorrow and get ready for a tough game." Brayden Schenn and Vincent Lecavalier scored for the Flyers, playing the second of an unscheduled back-to-back set after a snowstorm in Philadelphia pushed their game, a 3-2 loss to Carolina, to Wednesday. Philadelphia is 2-4-2 since winning 10 of 13. Coach Craig Berube said the Flyers recent struggles are because of poor execution inside their blue line. "It starts in our own end breaking the puck out," he said. "We are not doing a very good job of it. We end up spending too much time in our own end." Backup Ray Emery got the nod in goal instead of Steve Mason and had 34 stops. Mason, acquired from the Blue Jackets in 2012, played against the Hurricanees and has yet to face his former team in two visits to Columbus.dddddddddddd The home crowd chided the former rookie of the year with chants of "We want Mason!" during the second and third periods. The Flyers fell behind 1-0 at 8:20. Johnsons shot from the right boards bounced off the legs of Luke Schenn and eluded Emery for his third of the season. Brayden Schenn tied it 1:56 in on a nice individual effort. He stripped the puck from Ryan Murray at the Columbus blue line, then cut in on Bobrovsky, eventually scoring on his third rapid-fire shot for his 14th. Lecavalier made it 2-1 just under six minutes later with his 11th, blasting a shot from the slot on the power play after a nice passing combination. The Blue Jackets responded with goals 4:49 apart to regain the lead, then added two more in the third period. "Were slowly getting the feeling in the room that no matter what teams throw at us we seem to dig deep and come up with a win," MacKenzie said. Corey Tropps forecheck squirted the puck free to Artem Anisimov, who centred a short-range pass to MacKenzie that he chipped in for his third at 11:24. Calvert was credited with the go-ahead score, his sixth, on a quirky power-play sequence. Philadelphias attempted sure clear, hit a glass partition and stayed in their zone. James Wisniewski got the puck and sent a hard pass from the left circle that hit Calverts turning skate in the crease and deflected into the goal. The play went to review and was upheld. Dubinsky beat Emery with a wrist shot from the slot for his 11th at 3:29 of the third. Horton scored a highlight-reel goal three minutes later, stepping around Andrej Meszaros at the boards and powering a high shot past Emery for his fourth. "This is something weve talked about as a group ... really trying to create an identity for our team and I think weve done that." NOTES: The Blue Jackets look to continue their record run Saturday against visiting Buffalo. ... Philadelphia is 6-4-0 in the second of back-to-back games. ... Columbus is 12-7-1 in the Metropolitan Division, while Philadelphia is 9-8-3. ... Arguably the Flyers best player this season, Mason recently signed a three-year contract extension. However, hes 1-2-1 with a 4.21 goals against average in his last five starts, getting pulled twice. ' ' '