CINCINNATI (Ticker) -- Joe Randa is making quite a first impression with the Cincinnati Reds .

Randa hit a grand slam and drove in a career-high six runs and Eric Milton won in his Cincinnati debut as the Reds posted a 9-5 victory over the New York Mets .

After ending Monday's game with a home run, Randa - signed to a one-year deal in the offseason - gave the Reds the early lead in this one with a two-run single off Mets starter Tom Glavine (0-1) in the first inning.

One pitch earlier, Glavine thought he struck out Randa on an 0-2 pitch, but failed to get the call.

"It's the kind of thing where you get in a position that you have to make another pitch," Glavine said. "Sometimes you (get the call). Sometimes you don't. We respect (Randa). You don't think of him having a lot of power but he's a good hitter."

"I thought the pitch before was a ball," Randa said. "It was very close. I know Tom thought it was a strike."

Glavine also narrowly missed on an 0-2 pitch earlier in the inning to Ken Griffey Jr.

"They were huge," Mets manager Willie Randolph said. "They were close pitches that probably would have made a difference in the game." With Cincinnati clinging to a two-run edge with one out in the eighth, Randa put away the game with his second career grand slam to make it 9-3.

"You have to take advantage of this ballpark when you can," said Randa, who is 5-for-8 in the series. "It's been fun but the bottom line is we're winning. It's just my time."

"I didn't know he was that good," said Mets centerfielder Carlos Beltran , who was teammates with Randa in Kansas City. "He's having a great series. He's a great guy."

Staked to a 5-2 lead, Milton (1-0) allowed three straight singles to open the sixth and gave up a sacrifice fly to Doug Mientkiewicz before giving way to Matt Belisle , who retired the next two batters to get out of the inning.

"Matt got some big outs for us," Cincinnati manager Dave Miley said.

Milton surrendered three runs and nine hits with two strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings.

Glavine did not make it out of the fourth, allowing five runs and nine hits with three walks in 3 2/3 innings.

Mientkiewicz and David Wright homered off Milton for New York, which added two runs off reliever Ben Weber in the ninth.

"The one to Mientkiewicz was a bad pitch," Milton said. "I'd throw the same pitch to Wright 100 times."

In his second game as manager, Randolph opened himself up to criticism by being too late on a double switch in the eighth inning. Randolph sent Chris Woodward to replace Mientkiewicz at first base, hoping that Woodward would be up second in the ninth inning, but reliever Mike DeJean had already begun warming up.

After a brief conference the double switch was negated.

"I went out to my position," Mientkiewicz said. "I saw Chris out there and said, 'Woops, I guess I'm not playing.'"