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Brian Wilson’s errant throw on a ninth-inning sacrifice bunt let Gary Sheffield score early Saturday as the Mets again came from behind for an 8-6 win at AT&T Park.
Sheffield and Wright began the inning with singles, and Ryan Church was trying to put both runners in scoring position. Church bunted the ball too hard right back to Wilson, who had a chance to get the lead runner but threw the ball into left field. Omir Santos sacrificed Wright home for an insurance run.
Mets starter Livan Hernandez had a 1-0 lead before taking the mound but gave it back and more by giving up four runs. He lost his no-no on a Fred Lewis double that made it 7,517 new York Mets games without a no-hitter. Hernandez gave up a total of five runs on eight hits and four walks.
The Mets were down 4-1 in the top of the sixth when Sheffield led off with a double and advanced to third on a Church single. Santos hit a sac-fly to bring him home, and Church scored after back-to-back singles by Jeremy Reed and Daniel Murphy.
Giants starter Tim Lincecum helped his cause in the bottom half of the inning by singling home Rich Aurilia, but the Mets would tie it up in the seventh with a three-run rally that began with a leadoff single by Luis Castillo. Lincecum’s issuing of a walk to Carlos Beltran prompted Giants’ manager Bruce Bochy to bring in reliever Merkin Valdez, who walked Gary Sheffield.
David Wright then stepped up with the bases loaded and cleared them with a double down the left-field line. Wright, the potential go-ahead run, stole third with no outs, but Jeremy Affeldt struck out the next three batters and left Wright stranded 90 feet from home.
Randy Winn blasted an apparent home run ball to right in the eighth, but it came two feet shy of the clearing the 24-foot fence and Winn, too, got stranded at third.