Mets Beat Royals in 11; Wright Hurt

The Royals came into Citi Field Friday night riding a nine-game winning streak. They now have a one-game losing streak as the Mets beat them in yet another extra inning game. But the bigger story is that David Wright got hurt and could be lost for a few weeks.

Wright slammed a two-run home run in the bottom of the first inning to give the Mets an early 2-0 lead. The homer tied Wright with Mike Piazza for second on the all-time Mets list with 220.

Gee pitched well but he did not help himself at the plate. In both the second and fourth innings he was asked to bunt with runners on first and second with one out. Both times he could not get the bunt down and struck out, squashing the budding rallies.

Gee pitched out of a second and third jam in the seventh to keep the Royals off the board. But with 99 pitches, Terry Collins sent Gee out for the eighth, probably to face one batter before bringing in a lefty. He walked that batter and was lifted from the game. Scott Rice came on and hit his first batter, putting runners on first and second with no outs. A comebacker resulted in a force play at second. LaTroy Hawkins came in with runners on first and third with one out. He induced a grounder to third. It was too slow to turn a double play so a run scored to make it 2-1. Hawkins got the third out on a wild play. Ike Davis could not handle a hard smash, the ball bouncing off his chest. He made a poor flip to Hawkins, who came up with it and stumbled into the bag, getting it with his back foot.

Gee went seven innings, allowing one run on just three hits, striking out four and walking two.

With Bobby Parnell unavailable with a stiff neck, David Aardsma came on in the ninth to close the game. It did not go well. He allowed a leadoff double to Miguel Tejada, who is still playing baseball.  He walked Alcides Escobar, who was trying to dumbly sacrifice. Elliott Johnson did dumbly sacrifice to put runners on second and third with one out. Pinch hitter Billy Butler, not starting because there was no DH, was intentionally walked to load the bases. Lorenzo Cain hit a sacrifice fly to tie the game at two. Escobar moved to third. Pedro Feliciano, who is also still playing baseball and just up from the minors to replace an injured Josh Edgin, came in for his first appearance since 2010. He retired Alex Gordon on a grounder.

Davis, who had three hits on the night, led off the ninth with a double. Andrew Brown ran for him. Omar Quintanilla sacrificed him to third (dumb, dumb). Pinch hitter Justin Turner struck out for the second out. Eric Young was intentionally walked to face Juan Lagares. He grounded out to end the inning.

Carlos Torres, who was supposed to start on Saturday, came in to pitch the 10th, retiring the side. Safe to say he won’t be starting tomorrow.

Wright led off the bottom of the 10th with an infield single. But it was costly — he appeared to further aggravate his ailing hamstring and had to leave the game. Zack Wheeler ran for him. Marlon Byrd walked. Daniel Murphy hit a grounder to short to force Byrd at second. Wheeler moved to third with one out, but John Buck hit into a double play to end the inning.

Then in the bottom of the 11th it was Eric Young with the big hit, a two-run homer to give the Mets a 4-2 win.