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Carlos Beltran drew a bases-loaded walk-off walk in the bottom of the tenth inning Tuesday night to cap a late-inning comeback and lead the Mets to a 4-3 victory over the Atlanta Braves at Citi Field.
Starter Mike Pelfrey had another strong start, giving up just two runs on six hits and a walk in seven innings of work. He lost his no-hitter in the second inning when Brian McCann singled to left, making it 7,514 New York Mets games without a no-hitter.
New York didn’t get the leadoff runner on base until the eighth inning when Jeremy Reed singled. After Ryan Church reached base with a one-out single, Jose Reyes doubled to left-center to score both Reed and Church, but was thrown out trying to stretch it into a triple.
Beltran led off the bottom of the ninth with a double down the left field line. After David Wright fouled out, Beltran stole third (It looked like Chipper Jones got the tag down before Beltran’s hand, but … oh well). Mike Gonzalez hit Fernando Tatis with a pitch, and then pinch-hitter Luis Castillo stepped up and hit a shallow fly ball to left to score Beltran. The inning ended when Gonzalez picked Tatis off first, prompting his tag-out at second.
Reyes jump-started the tenth with a two-out single up the middle. With Alex Cora at bat, Reyes stole second, prompting the Braves’ Jeff Bennett to intentionally walk Cora to face Ramon Castro. After a clearly unintentional base-on-balls issued to Castro, Beltran ended the game with his walk.
Mets’ closer Francisco Rodriguez allowed leadoff singles in both the top of the ninth and top of the tenth innings, but worked his way out of both jams for the win. McCann gave fans a scare in the tenth when he blasted a pitch just right of the foul pole by the Pepsi Porch.
