Padres-Mets Preview

The New York Mets' chances to reach the postseason may be dim, but they're not giving up.

A collective effort against one of the best staffs in baseball may have provided some momentum.

After rallying for a stunning victory in the opener of this four-game set, the Mets look to continue overcoming

some key absences when they face the San Diego Padres on Tuesday night.

New York (57-57) is nine games back of wild card-leading Atlanta and is missing Jose Reyes(hamstring), Daniel Murphy (knee) and Ike Davis (ankle). Murphy and Davis are out for the season, and Reyes landed on the disabled list for the second time this year Monday.

"We're not conceding anything," said David Wright, batting .368 with 18 RBIs in 16 games since missing two months with a back problem. "There are a lot of games left. Crazier things have happened."

That was certainly the case Monday, with rookie Lucas Duda hitting a two-run walkoff single as New York erased a four-run deficit in the final two innings to beat San Diego 9-8. New York has won two of three after a five-game slide.

"I'm proud of the way they have endured this whole thing," manager Terry Collins said. "We're not done yet. ... If they think for one second that this is over, they're mistaken."

Jason Bay appears to have heeded Collins' message, enjoying perhaps his best stretch since joining the Mets prior to last season. He's hitting .447 with three homers and nine RBIs during a 10-game hitting streak.

"It really is going to take everybody," said Bay, one of three Mets to homer Monday.

Duda, Wright and rookie Justin Turner accounted for seven hits and five RBIs for New York, which scored three runs off Heath Bell and handed the Padres closer just his third blown save.

Wright owns a .351 average with three homers and 10 RBIs in his last nine meetings with the Padres (51-65), who are among baseball's best with a 3.33 ERA - 2.89 from the bullpen.

The Mets turn to Chris Capuano (9-10, 4.44 ERA), who is 1-3 with a 5.23 ERA in his last five starts after winning five of his previous six with a 2.57 ERA.

The left-hander was in position for a victory last Tuesday, leaving after six innings with a one-run lead only to have Jason Isringhausen give up two runs in the ninth in a 4-3 loss to Florida.

Capuano is 4-2 with a 3.29 ERA in seven games - six starts - against San Diego.

Like the Mets, the Padres are dealing with a slew of injuries, having added third baseman Chase Headley (finger) and reliever Ernesto Frieri (back) to the 15-day DL on Monday.

They've recalled Wade LeBlanc (0-2, 4.98) to make another start in place of Dustin Moseley, recently lost for the season with an injury to his non-throwing shoulder.

In his last outing July 31, LeBlanc allowed three runs and nine hits with six strikeouts in six innings while not getting a decision in an 8-3 win over Colorado. He was demoted to Triple-A Tucson the following day and hasn't pitched since.

"They said kind of hold tight and see what happens," LeBlanc told the team's official website. "They said they may need someone or they may not."

LeBlanc was charged with a 4-2 defeat in his only meeting with the Mets on June 1, 2010, yielding two runs and four walks in 5 1-3 innings.

Wright is 3 for 3 with a homer off LeBlanc.

Wright returns to lift Mets over Marlins

For the second time this week the New York Mets got a key component of their team back, and for the second time that translated into a win.

Third baseman David Wright returned to play for the first time in over two months and went 2-for-5 with two

RBI and two runs scored as the Mets took a 7-6 win over the Florida Marlins in the opener of a three-game series. 

Wright had been on the disabled list since May 16 with a stress fracture in his lower back. 

"I've missed everything about being out there," said Wright. The camaraderie, the guys in the dugout, being up by one in the ninth inning and sweating it out. I had fun out there tonight and it's good to be out there." 

Tuesday saw shortstop Jose Reyes return to the team after a stint on the DL with a strained left hamstring and he guided the team to a win over St. Louis. 

Daniel Murphy went 2-for-4 with two RBI and a run scored for New York, which has won three of its last four to move a game over .500. Bobby Parnell (3-1) got the win as he worked 1 1/3 innings and gave up an unearned run. 

Emilio Bonifacio went 1-for-3 with two walks and two runs scored and extended his hitting streak to 21 games. Gaby Sanchez and Mike Stanton each hit solo home runs for the Marlins, who have lost four straight. Edward Mujica (8-3) was handed the loss as he gave up two runs over 1 1/3 innings. 

"We did a bunch of things out there, stealing bases, move runners, hit-and- run, took some chances and it paid off," said Florida manager Jack McKeon. "But, once again, it came down to pitching and we weren't able to hold them." 

Neither starter factored into the final decision as Mike Pelfrey lasted six innings for New York and gave up four runs on five hits with four walks and Chris Volstad was touched for four runs -- three earned -- on eight hits with three walks over five innings for Florida. 

The Mets held four separate leads in this game, but kept allowing the Marlins to get back into the contest. 

With the score tied at 5-5 to start the eighth, Turner worked a walk off of Mujica and, after Carlos Beltran flied out, Wright ripped a double to the corner in right. Murphy followed with an RBI double for a 7-5 lead. 

The extra run would prove fortunate as Greg Dobbs singled home Mike Stanton in the bottom of the eighth. Florida, though, stranded men at the corners as Bonifacio looked at strike three. 

Jason Isringhausen came on for the ninth and worked a 1-2-3 inning, getting DeWayne Wise to fly out to deep left for his second save of the season. 

The Mets got three runs in the first for the early lead. With one out, Turner singled and Beltran followed with a walk. Wright then hit an opposite-field double in his first at-bat back in the lineup and Murphy followed with an RBI single. Angel Pagan's sacrifice fly capped the scoring in the frame. 

Bonifacio wasted no time extending his hitting streak as he led off the bottom of the first with a single. He then stole second and moved to third on an Omar Infante fly out before scoring on a Logan Morrison single. 

The second inning saw Stanton work a full count before ripping an opposite field home run to make it a 3-2 game. 

In the third, the legs of Bonifacio tied the game with Florida. After he led off the inning with a walk, Infante singled to the hole between short and third and Bonifacio raced to third. He made a hard turn around the bag and spotted a lackadasical throw from Lucas Duda back to the infield. Bonifacio took advantage and raced home before the throw to the plate. 

The fourth inning saw the Mets take the lead back as Reyes led off with a single and moved to second when Turner reached base as Bonifacio bobbled his grounder. Beltran then hit a sharp grounder to first that skipped over the head of Gaby Sanchez and Reyes came around to score for a 4-3 lead. 

Sanchez tied the game in the sixth with his 14th home run of the year then the teams exchanged runs in the seventh on sacrifice flys from Ronny Paulino and Morrison. 

Game Notes 

The Mets announced on Friday that the August 20 game at Milwaukee has been moved from 4:10 p.m. (et) to 7:10 p.m. (et)...Also on Friday, the Mets claimed outfielder Mike Baxter off waivers from San Diego and designated first baseman Nick Evans for assignment...Bonifacio is batting .380 (30-for-79) during his streak...Beltran has reached base safely in 28 straight games...Each team has won three times during the season series. 

Dodgers put a lot of things together to beat the Mets, 6-0

Clayton Kershaw scattered five hits over eight innings and the Dodgers parlayed extra-base hits by Matt Kemp, Juan Uribe, Aaron Miles and Dioner Navarro into a five-run sixth inning to beat the New York Mets, 6-0, on Thursday night at Dodger Stadium to snap a five-game losing skid.

The loss ended the Mets' four-game winning streak and kept them from sweeping the Dodgers for the first time in four games at Chavez Ravine.
Kershaw (9-4) struck out nine and walked two in his last start before the All-Star break. The left-hander, who will pitch in his first All-Star game next week in Phoenix, came within one strikeout of his fourth straight double-digit game, something that hadn't been done by a Dodgers pitcher since Hideo Nomo in1995.
Kershaw got out of a bases-loaded jam in the eighth by striking out Ronny Paulino to end the inning after getting a visit from manager Don Mattingly.
The Mets loaded the bases again in the ninth against Kenley Jansen before Hong-Chih Kuo got the final two outs.
Dillon Gee (8-3) gave up five hits and six runs — five earned — struck out two and walked one to lose his second straight.

Yanks schedule checkup on A-Rod's hip

BALTIMORE -- Alex Rodriguez said that he feels no discomfort in his surgically repaired right hip, but the Yankees slugger will agree to have an examination when the team returns to New York.

Rodriguez said that he could have an appointment on Friday, before the Yankees open the Subway Series at home against the Mets, but he stressed that there is no particular urgency to do so.

"Checkups are going to be part of the rest of my career," Rodriguez said. "We're doing it to be very proactive. I wouldn't be surprised if there's another one in October or January.

"Again, we'll be sitting here next year talking about that. We just want to make sure -- that's a certain box, and we want to check it off."

Rodriguez had a procedure performed in March 2009 that knocked him out until May 8, when he homered on the first pitch he saw from the Orioles' Jeremy Guthrie in Baltimore.

Rodriguez has had few ill effects since, and Dr. Marc Philippon gave him a clean bill of health over the winter to resume full-force baseball workouts instead of focusing on rehab exercises.

But recently, Rodriguez has been less inclined to use his lower half in swings, a flaw that hitting coach Kevin Long has worked to correct.

Rodriguez homered twice off the Rays' James Shields on Tuesday. Still, Long suggested that Rodriguez get the hip looked at, just to make sure he is as close to 100 percent as possible.

"It's definitely no excuse for any poor performance," Rodriguez said. "It has nothing to do with bad feelings or aching or anything. I've actually been working my tail off with Kevin and feeling better every day. Finally, yesterday, I got a little results."

Rodriguez typically has a winter checkup with Philippon in Vail, Colo., but the team is not expecting Philippon's presence to be necessary in New York.

"I think you just want to make sure he's OK," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "Al talked about being proactive and making sure that everything is OK.

"He said he doesn't necessarily feel anything, so from our standpoint, you're not worried about it. He's had checkups before. It's an issue he's had, and we thought he moved a lot better this year."

The expectation is that team physician Christopher Ahmad will be able to execute what Rodriguez believes will be a relatively routine checkup.

"There's no urgency," Rodriguez said. "We've had a little bit of a crazy schedule here, travel-wise, but when it's convenient for everybody, we'll get it done."

Rockies 7, Mets 6

Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez each drove in three runs as the Colorado Rockies erased an early deficit to defeat the host New York Mets 7-6 on Monday.

The Rockies have won seven of their last eight games after losing on opening day.

The Mets took a 4-2 lead on Willie Harris' two-run double in the fourth before Colorado's stars jump-started the rally. Gonzalez singled home two runs in the sixth, and Tulowitzki hit his fourth home run in the eighth, a two-run shot off Bobby Parnell (0-1).

David Wright's second home run, a solo shot in the eighth off Rafael Betancourt, and Ike Davis' RBI single later in the inning made it 7-6, but Betancourt retired three straight to get out of the jam and Huston Street struck out two in a perfect ninth for his fifth save in five tries.

Davis has at least one RBI in nine of New York's 10 games.

Seth Smith went 3-for-4 with a double and a triple for the Rockies, who are 4-1 on the road after going 31-50 away from home last season. Matt Belisle (2-0) recorded two outs in the seventh for the win.

Mets starter Mike Pelfrey struggled again, lasting only 5 1/3 innings and allowing four runs - three earned - on six hits. He walked four and struck out three.

Rockies starter Jason Hammel allowed four runs - two earned - on six hits over six innings, with one walk and three strikeouts.