You could forgive the New York Mets for thinking they had a black cloud hanging over their head when Jose Reyes was called out on an attempted triple in the eighth inning of their road game against the Washington Nationals. Even though the Mets came into the game winners of five straight, there had to be a sense of here-we-go-again, and not in the rousing Whitesnake kind of way. But New York was able to come back, tying the game in the eighth inning and exploding for four runs in the ninth, defeating Washington on Wednesday night, 6-3, to win their sixth straight.
R.A. Dickey pitched well for the Mets, giving up two earned runs in 6-2/3 innings, but he left the game trailing 2-1, with a Rick Ankiel RBI double breaking the tie in the fifth.
That score held until the eighth inning when Reyes drove a ball into the left-center-field gap and attempted to stretch the hit into a triple with one out. Reyes beat the throw, but umpire Marvin Hudson ruled that he came off the base. Replays indicated that if he did come off, it was only because Jerry Hairston’s late tag knocked his arm off the bag. But before the Mets could storm the administration building in protest, Daniel Murphy tied the game with a solo home run.
An Adam LaRoche bloop double and a passed ball set up a Wilson Ramos sacrifice fly in the bottom of the eighth, leaving the game in the hands of Sean Burnett.
The Mets then pounced, getting three straight singles to start the inning, a Chin-Lung Hu sac fly to tie the game, and an RBI groundout from Josh Thole to take the lead. Murphy added a two-run double to pad a lead that Francisco Rodriguez wouldn’t give up.
Wednesday was the first time since September 25, 2009 that the Mets were able to win a game in which they trailed in the ninth inning on the road.
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