Mets Come Back, Beat Diamondbacks in 13

The Mets showed some heart Monday night at Citi Field. Down 3-0 in the seventh, the Mets came back to tie the score in the bottom of the ninth. And then down a run in the 13th inning and down to their final strike, the Mets scored two runs to win the game.

Following his first win of the season last week in which he pitched eight innings of shutout ball, Shaun Marcum was back to his old tricks in the first inning. He hit Aaron Hill with a pitch and then Paul Goldschmidt hit a long home run to center that just seemed to keep carrying to give the Diamondbacks an early 2-0 lead.

The Diamondbacks made it 3-0 in the second with a single, sacrifice, ground out and single.

The Mets had their chances against Wade Miley early on. They loaded the bases with two outs in the first, but John Buck struck out. In the second the Mets had runners on first and third with no outs but they stranded them.

Josh Satin doubled to lead off the sixth inning. After Buck struck out for the third time in the game, Wiley uncorked a wild pitch and Satin advanced to third. With two outs Omar Quintanilla walked, and that was all for Miley. Brad Ziegler came on to face Kirk Nieuwenhuis, pinch hitting for Zach Lutz, who was supposed to pinch hit for Marcum. Nieuwenhuis struck out to end the inning.

Marcum settled down after his rough start to go six innings, allowing three runs on six hits, with two strikeouts and three walks. But with the Mets anemic offense, that is too big a hole to dig.

The Mets finally got on the board in the seventh. With Eric Young on second, David Wright singled to make it a 3-1 game. Later in the inning with Wright on third and Marlon Byrd on second with two outs, Buck fouled out to stamp out the rally.

With one out in the eighth Quintanilla hit  along drive to deep right. Gerardo Parra ran a long way and dove for it. It hit his glove and bounced out. Quintanilla made it to third with a triple and Parra had to leave the game “for precautionary reasons,” whatever that means. Pinch hitter Jordan Valdespin popped out in foul territory for the second out. Young then doubled down the line in right to make it a 3-2 game. Young moved to third on a wild pitch, but Murphy popped up to right to end the inning.

With one out in the ninth Byrd doubled off the wall in left, just missing a game-tying home run by inches. Satin then singled over the shortstop. Third base coach Tim Teufel chose to send Byrd home. It might have been a terrible decision as the throw beat Byrd home. But catcher Miguel Montero could not handle the throw and Byrd was safe with the tying run, 3-3. Satin went to second on the throw. Buck walked and Juan Lagares popped out for the second out. With Quintanilla up J.J. Putz threw a wild pitch that bounced a few feet from Montero. Satin advanced easily to third with the potential winning run, but for some reason Buck tried to go to second. Montero threw him out to end the inning. It was an absolutely asinine thing for Buck to do because his run was meaningless; if Satin were to score the game would have been over.

So we were on to extra innings, and Quintanilla led off the bottom of the 10th with a single off of Chaz Roe, making his major league debut. Andrew Brown sacrificed him to second. Young grounded out for the second out, moving Quintanilla to third. Murphy flew out to end the inning.

Wright, who walked to lead off the 11th inning, was on second with two outs. Buck was intentionally walked to face pinch hitter and part-time pitcher Anthony Recker. Recker walked to load the bases and that was the end of Roe’s first night as a big leaguer. Tony Sipp came and Quintanilla hit a low liner to first that Goldschmidt was able to snag for the third out.

After two perfect innings, Bobby Parnell gave way to David Aardsma for the 12th inning. Jason Kubel led off with a single, but Aardsma was able to get the next three outs.

Young singled with one out in the 12th, but Murphy struck out and Wright popped out to center.

Cody Ross led off the 13th inning with a home run off of Aardsma to give the Diamondbacks a 4-3 lead.

Satin doubled with one out in the bottom of the 13th. Buck was intentionally walked, and with no one else on the bench, Matt Harvey was the pinch hitter. Harvey, a good hitter, was idiotically asked to sacrifice, which he did for the second out. Quintanilla was intentionally walked to load the bases to face Brown. Down to his last strike, Brown stroked a single to the gap in left-center to give the Mets the stunning 5-4 win.