   |
A ninth-inning Carlos Delgado liner mishandled by the Braves’ Omar Infante scored David Wright Thursday night and gave the Mets a 5-4 walkoff win.
The ball, ruled a single, gave Delgado his fifth hit in five plate appearances.
The Mets with the win pull to 2 1/2 games ahead of the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League East.
Starter Pedro Martinez again gave up a leadoff homer – this time to Yunel Escobar – marking the 50th time in the Mets’ 46-year history that a first-batter homer has killed a potential no-hitter. (See our No-hitters killed by first at bat page for more details on leadoff hits.)
It was the third time Martinez has done that this month. On Aug. 1 in Houston, he gave up a leadoff homer to the Astros’ Kaz Matsui, and on Aug. 6 at Shea he yielded a first-batter dinger to the San Diego Padres’ Jody Gerut.
Escobar’s shot advanced our NoNoHitters.com count to 7,448 New York Mets games without a franchise no-hitter.
But the important stat for Martinez was innings pitched, and he lasted seven while giving up four earned runs on seven hits and one walk while striking out seven.
Pedro Feliciano and newcomer Luis Ayala did well out of the bullpen, with Ayala pitching 1 1/3 innings to get the win in relief.
