David Wright Homers in 1st At Bat, Mets Win
David Wright is back, and he made sure everybody knew it. He homered in his first at bat Friday after seven weeks on the disabled list as the Mets beat the Phillies.
The Mets jumped all over Cole Hamels in the first. Eric Young doubled when John Mayberry (two juniors!) could not complete a diving catch. He promptly stole third for his 40th steal of the season and came home when Daniel Murphy singled. David Wright then hit his home run to right and just like that, the Mets had a 3-0 lead.
They made it 4-0 in the third when Murphy singled again, stole second (his 20th) and scored on an Andrew Brown single.
Travis d’Arnaud led off the fourth with a single. He advanced to second on a ground out and came around when Young’s bloop fell into right field — 5-0 Mets.
Daisuke Matsuzaka ran into big-time trouble in the fifth. A single and two walks loaded the bases. Darin Ruf doubled down the left field line to plate two runs. However, Young’s throw to second got past Murphy and another runner scampered home to make it 5-3. The error was charged to Young, but it should have been on Murphy; there was no way that the ball should have skipped past him. With a runner on second with one out, Mayberry hit a comebacker back to Matsuzaka — he made a kick save and a beauty. He correctly threw to third to get the lead runner. Ruf got into a rundown, which was not executed well by the Mets. Omar Quintanilla chased him to third, and his swipe tag apparently missed and runners were safe at second and third. Cole Hamels hit a grounder to first to score Ruf to make it 5-4.
Murphy singled with one out in the seventh — he had three hits on the night. David Wright singled to right to move Murphy to third. Josh Satin hit a double play ball to short, but Satin just beat the throw to first as Murphy scored to give the Mets a big insurance run to extend the lead to 6-4.
Dice-K lasted six innings, allowing four runs (two earned) on four hits. He struck out six Phillies and walked three. It was his third decent start after three indecent ones.
The bullpen held the rest of the way, including LaTroy Hawkins with his 11th save as the Mets won 6-4.