Just 24 hours after hitting his first major league home run, Blake DeWitt got his first inside-the park homer _ a two-run shot off the top of the right-field fence in the fifth inning _ that gave the Los Angeles Dodgers a lead they would not relinquish in a 5-4 victory over the New York Mets on Tuesday night.

DeWitt also had a two-run single among his three hits, helping the Dodgers win for the 10th time in 11 games. His inside-the-park homer was the first by the Dodgers since Aug. 9, 2003, when Dave Roberts led off the first inning with one against Matt Clement in a 6-1 win over the Chicago Cubs at Chavez Ravine.

Kong-Chih Kuo (2-1) got the victory with 3 2-3 innings of hitless relief. The Taiwanese-born left-hander struck out eight of the 13 batters he faced after relieving starter Hiroki Kuroda in the fourth with one out, two on and the Dodgers trailing 4-3.

Three of Kuo's first four big league victories have come at the Mets' expense. On Sept. 8, 2006, he beat them 5-0 at Shea Stadium for his first career win. Last June 12 at Dodger Stadium, he beat them 4-1 and hit a 412-foot homer off John Maine _ flipping his bat away as he left the batter's box with the Dodgers' third home run on three consecutive pitches.

Jonathan Broxton pitched a scoreless eighth and Takashi Saito got three outs in the ninth for his fourth save after giving up a pair of two-out singles.

Nelson Figueroa (2-2) allowed five runs and eight hits in five innings, walking four and striking out three.

Both teams were missing key regulars from their starting lineup. Mets center fielder Carlos Beltran was a late scratch because of flulike symptons, but pinch-hit in the eighth. Los Angeles shortstop and leadoff man Rafael Furcal couldn't play because of lower back stiffness. Furcal, second in the majors with a .369 average, was the only player to start each of the Dodgers' first 31 games.

Figueroa escaped a bases-loaded jam in the first when Russell Martin flied out. The right-hander wasn't as fortunate in the third, as DeWitt came up with three men on and singled past first baseman Carlos Delgado to slice New York's lead to 4-3.

Kuroda retired only nine of the 22 batters he faced, one on a double play and four others on forceouts. The right-hander was charged with four runs _ two earned _ and eight hits over 3 1-3 innings, including a solo homer by Ryan Church. He walked three.

Kuroda committed a throwing error while trying for a force at third on Figueroa's attempted sacrifice during New York's two-run second inning. Angel Pagan, starting in center for Beltran, led off with a bunt single and Brian Schneider followed with a base hit that put runners at the corners.

Luis Castillo followed with an RBI single before the Mets loaded the bases on Kuroda's miscue. Schneider scored on Jose Reyes' broken-bat single to center to give the Mets a 3-0 lead, but Kuroda minimized the damage by starting a 1-2-3 double play on Church's grounder to the mound before striking out David Wright.

Juan Pierre got the Dodgers on the board in the bottom half with a two-out RBI single, but the Mets got that run back in the third as 41-year-old Moises Alou reached on a fielding error by third baseman DeWitt and scored on the front end of a delayed double-steal with Pagan.

Notes:@ Joe Torre has had amazing timing when it comes to managing in milestone games at certain ballparks. Not only was he in the dugout for the 4,000th game at Dodger Stadium on Monday night, he also managed in the 1,000th game at the Astrodome (1977), the 1,000th at Coors Field (2007), the 2,000th at Busch Stadium (1991), the 3,000th at Angel Stadium (2003) and the 6,000th at Yankee Stadium (2001). ... Tuesday was the 25th anniversary of Darryl Strawberry's Shea Stadium debut.

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