Mets walk plank, fall in 11 to Pirates
PITTSBURGH — Josh Harrison could not win it with his legs in the 10th, but the Pirates’ backup infielder got the job done with his bat in the 11th. With one out, Harrison doubled off Vic Black, driving in Clint Barmes to beat the Mets, 3-2, at PNC Park.
The Mets (36-44) lost their third straight and dropped to 5-7 in extra-inning games. The Pirates (41-39) have won six of seven.
Catcher Travis d’Arnaud went 3-for-4, his first three-hit game in the majors, to improve to 6-for16 since returning from Triple-A. Lucas Duda had a two-run single in the second. Jacob deGrom allowed two runs in the fourth on Jordy Mercer’s single. He gave up five hits, walked three and struck out four in 6 2/3 innings in his fourth major league no-decision.
“The hit is not a big deal; it was the walk,” said Black (1-2), who was drafted by the Pirates and traded to the Mets last season, “They get you, man, the walks get you.”
Black issued a one-out walk to Barmes on four pitches to get himself in trouble, and Harrison hammered a first-pitch fastball to the wall in right field.
“He’s a hacker, I played with him for a while, he tends to be a first-pitch hacker,” Black said of Harrison. “It was not a bad pitch. He’s a scrappy guy.”
Harrison showed that scrappiness in the 10th. He led off the inning with a single, stole second and then beat a rundown to third in a bizarre play that had him lying on the infield grass at one point.
The Mets argued that he had run more than the allowed three feet out of his established basepath to get to third base. The umpires maintained he had not.
“There wasn’t a whole lot to their explanation, I don’t know,” Terry Collins said. “But that didn’t cost us the game. We got out of the inning.”
With runners on second and third, closer Jenrry Mejia, in his second inning of work, struck out Travis Snider, walked Andrew McCuthen intentionally, fanned Neil Walker and got Russell Martin to fly out to right to end the inning.
“He did a good job to get us out
of it,” Collins said.
WHAT ABOUT MURPHY?
Daniel Murphy had two more hits on Friday night, giving him 97 to lead the National League. Yet he was not among the top five in votes among NL second basemen when MLB released the latest fan voting tallies.
Collins thinks t hat is an oversight.
“Dan Murphy has to get some attention, he’s leading the National League i n hits,” the manager said. “I’d be shocked if David (Wright) isn’t picked by somebody, but to be honest, Dan Murphy deserves a lot of consideration and so does Jon Niese.”
While Niese, who will go against Gerrit Cole on Saturday, has j ust f our wins this season, he has the eighth-best ERA (2 .78) in the National League.
TWO TURNS
Dillon Gee (strained right lat) will need at least two more minor-league starts before he is ready to get back into the rotation. One will be Sunday for the Cyclones in Brooklyn and he will likely make another after that, Mets assistant general manager John Ricco said.