Mets Rally, Beat Arizona 5-4 On Beltran's Sac Fly
NEW YORK (AP) After striking out at the trade deadline, the New York Mets came through with one big hit after another Saturday night.
Jesus Feliciano tripled and scored on Carlos Beltran's sacrifice fly in the ninth inning, giving New York a 5-4 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks.
David Wright drove in three runs, including a tying single in the seventh off Arizona newcomer D.J. Carrasco, and the Mets finally beat the last-place Diamondbacks for the first time in five meetings this year.
New York, conspicuously quiet leading up to Saturday's non-waiver deadline after falling off the playoff pace this month, got a stellar start from Hisanori Takahashi and won for only the sixth time in 20 games.
"Obviously, there's 30 teams out there trying to improve themselves," said Wright, who recently acknowledged the Mets could use some help. "If we would have gotten somebody, great. But we can't hang our heads. We've got to find a way with the guys we have in here."
The rebuilding Diamondbacks, who made a flurry of deals before the deadline, have lost eight of nine. Justin Upton had three RBIs for Arizona and extended his hitting streak to a team-high 16 games.
Feliciano, called up Friday from Triple-A Buffalo when outfielder Jason Bay went on the disabled list with a concussion, entered on defense in the seventh and opened the ninth with a long drive to right-center against Juan Gutierrez (0-6).
Jose Reyes flied out to shallow right, keeping Feliciano at third, before the Diamondbacks intentionally walked Angel Pagan and Wright to set up a force at the plate.
"I felt good," Beltran said. "I didn't feel like I needed to do anything out of this world."
The five-time All-Star lifted a drive to deep right-center that was caught near the warning track by Upton, who didn't even make a throw as Feliciano scored easily.
Francisco Rodriguez (4-2) struck out two in a perfect ninth for the win. Feliciano was pelted with a cream pie in the face during an on-field TV interview.
"It was great," he said. "If you come here, you're going to get your chance. It's a National League team, there's a lot of pinch-hitters, double switches, so you just try to be ready."
Rookie right-hander Barry Enright pitched six effective innings and left with a chance for his second win over the Mets in 12 days. But Carrasco, acquired from Pittsburgh earlier in the day, couldn't hold a 4-2 lead.
Carrasco retired his first two batters in the seventh, then walked Reyes. Pagan followed with a single and scored from first with a headfirst slide when Wright lined a two-run double into the right-field corner.
"Not how I wanted to debut here," Carrasco said. "We had the lead and I blew it, but it's part of the game and I'm ready to go tomorrow."
Featuring a deceptive changeup, Takahashi struck out a career-high 10, the most by a Mets pitcher since Nelson Figueroa fanned 10 Chicago Cubs on Aug. 30, 2009, at Wrigley Field.
"Today I was pitching ahead in the count," Takahashi said through a translator. "That helps."
The 35-year-old rookie from Japan stranded seven runners over six innings. He threw a season-high 112 pitches and left with a 2-1 lead that was quickly squandered by Bobby Parnell.
Pinch-hitter Tony Abreu doubled to open the seventh and Upton's two-run single with the bases loaded put Arizona ahead. Pedro Feliciano relieved, Adam LaRoche dribbled a slow roller toward first base and Kelly Johnson beat Davis' toss to the plate to make it 4-2.
Feliciano avoided further damage by getting Miguel Montero to ground into a double play and striking out Mark Reynolds, who fanned all four times up, increasing his major league-leading total to 147.
Parnell allowed all four batters he faced to reach safely, including three hits. He had thrown 10 consecutive scoreless innings.
Upton had a bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the third. New York tied it in the bottom half when Pagan (three hits) clocked a ground-rule double with two outs and Wright followed with a single.
Wright also homered twice and drove in five runs Friday night during a 9-6 loss.
"One thing you don't want to do right now with the Mets is get into a situation where you have to pitch to David Wright," Diamondbacks interim manager Kirk Gibson said. "He's locked in. He's carrying his team right now. He's influencing the game when he's not up there."
Reyes put New York up 2-1 in the fifth with an RBI single that extended his hitting streak to 12 games, longest by a Mets player this season.
"We're fighting," Beltran said. "Even though nothing happened this deadline, we're going to come here every single day with the mentality of winning ballgames."
NOTES: The last time Wright had eight RBIs in a two-game span was Aug. 29-30, 2006, at Colorado. ... Upton is batting .397 with two homers and 11 RBIs during his hitting streak.
