It was a beautiful day for baseball at Citi Field as the New York Mets played host to the San Francisco Giants Saturday afternoon. It was a bit of a pitcher's duel between Ryan Vogelsong and Mike Pelfrey at first, but the Giants rallied in the ninth inning to tie the game like Mets did the night before. But in a wacky string of events in the ninth inning, the Giants would eventually fall by the score of 5-4
Pablo Sandoval got the Giants on the board in the third with an RBI single, scoring Angel Pagan to grab the early lead. The Mets fought back in the fifth after Lucas Duda walked to start the inning, then a Josh Thole single advanced Duda to third. That led to Ruben Tejada's RBI fielder's choice to tie up the game, which held until the seventh when Tejada struck again with a two RBI double down the right field line. Vogelsong would finish after seven innings, allowing five hits, three earned runs, two walks, and four strikeouts, throwing 110 pitches for a no decision.
Javier Lopez and the Giants defense struggled in the eighth after an infield hit, an Aubrey Huff error than another infield hit made it 4-1 Mets, forcing the Giants to bring Dan Otero in from the bullpen. But it was Buster Posey doing all the work, picking off Ike Davis at first then throwing out David Wright at third, getting them out of the jam.
Pelfrey would get a non decision after eight innings of work, giving up one run on six hits with one walk and three punchouts. Though the Giants weren't ready to go home just yet.
Buster started the rally in the ninth, poking a single up the middle off Mets closer Frank Francisco. Aubrey Huff advanced him to third with a groundout back to Francisco, who immediately walked Nate Schierholtz on four pitches to bring the tying run to the plate. Emmanuel Burris hit an RBI single to score Posey, making the score 4-2, forcing New York to pull their closer.
Mets reliever Tim Byrdak would strike out Hector Sanchez, then Jon Rauch worked Brandon Belt to a full count. Belt would pop up in shallow center field, which no one caught, scoring two runs to tie the game a four apiece. It would be scored a double.
Clay Hensley allowed a lead off single to Lucas Duda, who got bunted over to second. That brought Ruben Tejada to the plate, already with three RBI's on the afternoon, who Hensley wanted no part of and walked. Jeremy Affeldt would come in, and because of their shortage of players with Ryan Theriot still out and the 20 players used last night, Aubrey Huff had to play second, misplaying a double play ball that load the bases leading to a bizarre end to the game.
A grounder to Brandon Belt forced a throw home, though Scott Hairston slid into the ankle of Buster Posey causing an errant throw back to first, ending up in right field, leading to the winning run to score. Posey would argue that he was interfered with, but the umpire was not having it, ending the game in exciting fashion once more.
Full box score can be found here.
Tim Lincecum (0-2 10.54 ERA) takes the bump Sunday afternoon to face Dillon Gee (1-1 2.92 ERA) for the Mets in another matinee matchup. First pitch is set for 10:10 a.m. PT.
For more on the Giants, head on over to McCovey Chronicles. For the Mets side of the story, make sure you check out Amazin' Avenue.