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The Mets overcame a horrid start by Tim Redding and a blown save by Francisco Rodriguez to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 9-8 Thursday afternoon during a rain-soaked makeup game at PNC Park.
Redding put in just 2 1/3 innings, giving up five earned runs on six hits and a pair of walks. He lost his no-hitter right away (well, rain delays aside) when Andrew McCutchen led off with a double to right, advancing our NoNoHitters.com count to 7,560 New York Mets games without a no-no.
McCutchen’s double earns Redding his first entry on our No-hitters killed by first at bat page – the 20th time we’ve had to update it this season.
Jerry Manuel had seen enough in the third, and he took the ball from Redding in the third and gave it to Pat Misch. Misch retired the only two batters he faced to let the Mets’ offense start chipping away at the deficit.
Fernando Tatis, Ryan Church and Nick Evans hit back-to-back-to-back singles in the fourth, and Daniel Murphy followed with a pinch-hit two RBI single to put New York on the scoreboard.
The Mets got back to work in the fifth when Alex Cora led off with a double, David Wright advanced him to third with a single and Gary Sheffield drove him in with a single. Church scored Wright on a single, and Evans knocked in Tatis with a single to tie the game at five. Jermy Reed’s pinch-hit sacrifice fly scored Church and gave the Mets a 6-5 lead.
Tatis’ two-run homer in the sixth extended the Mets’ lead to 8-5.
Garrett Jones blasted a Pedro Feliciano fastball over the right-center field wall in the seventh, cutting the Mets’ lead to 8-6 and putting Jones just a single shy of the cycle.
The Mets needed just three outs for the win, but Francisco Rodriguez gave up a two-run homer to Adam Laroche to tie the game at 8. The Pirates nearly had a walk-off win in the ninth, but Luis Castillo snagged a hard-hit liner to end the inning.
But they clawed for a run in the top of the tenth when Tatis was hit by a pitch, stole second and then scored on a Church single. Rodriguez retired the tenth for the win, instead of the save.
