Ryan Church's slam helps Mets to sweep of Brewers

Ryan Church hit a grand slam and Brian Schneider added a homer in a six-run first inning that provided all the offense the Mets needed to beat the Milwaukee Brewers 9-2 and complete a three-game sweep Wednesday.

Starter Oliver Perez (10-7) benefited from the highest-scoring first inning by the Mets in more than a year by scattering two runs off five hits and five walks and working out of several jams until leaving in the seventh.

New York's road to redemption after last year's seven-game collapse with 17 to play returns to Shea Stadium, where the Mets open an eight-game homestand Friday beginning with Philadelphia, their closest pursuer in the NL East at 3 games back. The Phillies play Washington on Wednesday night.

But the Mets, now 3-0 in September and winners of four straight and six of the last seven, finished this road trip in style by sweeping the Brewers in a potential postseason matchup.

Milwaukee leads Philadelphia by four games in the wild card chase, but since the All-Star break the Brewers are 0-7 against the NL's divisional leaders and 8-10 against teams above .500 with 10 such games left to play.

New York, leading the majors in first-inning runs with 123, battered Brewers starter Dave Bush, who is allowing opposing hitters to go .321 with eight homers and 25 RBIs in the first inning this year.

After an out, Bush (9-10) gave up three straight singles, including an RBI hit by Carlos Delgado to make it 1-0, then walked Carlos Beltran to load the bases.

Church drove an off-speed pitch to the Mets' bullpen beyond the leaping grab of right fielder Corey Hart and pumped his right fist twice in a modest celebration as he rounded first.

The Mets went up 6-0 with two outs when Schneider hit a solo homer to almost the same spot in right field, the first time since July 19, 2007 that New York scored six or more runs in the top of the first inning.

The Mets made it 8-2 in the eighth when pinch hitter Nick Evans singled in two runs with two outs off reliever Mitch Stetter. David Wright hit a sacrifice fly in the ninth.

Not that New York needed all the extra runs. Milwaukee couldn't figure out a lefty for the third straight game after coming into the series with the best record against southpaws in the league.

The Brewers, who stranded 26 runners in the series, failed to score with two on and less than two outs in the first and third innings when Perez struggled to find the strike zone and didn't push a run across until Hart's RBI double in the sixth before leaving two more on base.

J.J. Hardy homered with one out in the seventh and Perez recorded the second out before walking Gabe Kapler and being relieved by Joe Smith.