MONTREAL, April 18 (UPI) -- Al Leiter pitched his eighth career shutout, a two-hit masterpiece, and batterymate Mike Piazza drove in the game's lone run with an RBI double in the fourth inning as the New York Mets edged the Montreal Expos Thursday night, 1-0.
Leiter lowered his National League-leading ERA to 0.38 and faced just four batters over the minimum. He bounced back from a rough outing against the Expos on Saturday in which he allowed six unearned runs over three innings.
But Leiter (2-0) has lasted at least six innings in each of his other starts and became the second Met in three days to pitch a complete game. New York had just three complete games all of last season.
Leiter allowed a double to Michael Barrett in the fifth and a double to Jose Vidro in the sixth. He walked two and struck out eight.
Montreal starter Javier Vazquez (0-1) nearly matched Leiter, allowing one run and five hits in eight innings. He did not walk a batter and struck out six.
