Sox reliever gets first hit since ’07 to help win game INTERLEAGUE

WHITE SOX 2, METS 1 (13)

NEW YORK — The longer a baseball game endures, the chances of something bizarre occurring naturally rise.

Four hours and 20 minutes into the New York Mets’ game Wednesday afternoon, Matt Albers, a reliever who last made a plate appearance in 2009 and who had not gotten a hit since he was a rookie in 2007, led off the 13th inning.

Albers stepped in against New York Mets reliever Logan Verrett, took a ball followed by two strikes, fouled a pitch into the dirt and took another ball. And then the astonishing occurred.

Verrett threw a 91 mph belt-high fastball, and the pudgy pitcher sent the ball soaring the opposite way, deep beyond the drawn- in outfielders. It landed just short of the warning track, took two hops and bounced off the fence.

Albers, who was brought in as the seventh White Sox pitcher in the 12th, had drilled Verrett’s pitch into the leftcenter-field gap for a double.

As Albers awkwardly went into second standing up and second baseman Neil Walker tagged him on the right knee, Albers used his right arm to brace himself on Walker’s right shoulder and then grabbed the shoulder with his left arm, too.

“He almost joined the cadaver club,” White Sox Manager Robin Ventura said.

With Jose Abreu at the plate, Albers cruised into third base on a wild pitch and scored on a sacrifice fly, leading the White Sox to a 2-1 victory at Citi Field.

In the first extra-inning game at Citi Field since Kansas City won Game 5 of last year’s World Series to take the title, Chicago pitchers walked 13 while White Sox fielders turned five double plays and the Mets stranded 14 runners. After walking Rene Rivera with two outs in the bottom of the 13th, Albers retired pinch-hitter Kevin Plawecki on a groundout to end a 4-hour, 41-minute game.

Chicago’s bullpen, which wasted late leads in three games at Kansas City last weekend, pitched 13 scoreless innings against the Mets in the three-game series.

On the fourth anniversary of Johan Santana throwing the only no-hitter in Mets’ history, Jacob deGrom dominated except for Todd Frazier’s tying seventh-inning home run, which went over the original 16- foot wall behind the current left-field fence. He struck out 10 — reaching double-digits for the first time since August — fanning the side in the third inning. He allowed five hits and a pair of walks.

Miguel Gonzalez remained winless in 14 starts since beating Tampa Bay on July 25 and is 0-7 with a 5.90 ERA in that span. While he walked the leadoff hitter in four of five innings — and walked deGrom twice — he allowed just three hits and Chicago turned three double plays behind him.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

BREWERS 3, CARDINALS 1

Zach Davies had a career-high nine strikeouts over eight shutout innings, and the Milwaukee Brewers averted a three-game sweep with a victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. Davies (3-3) allowed three hits and retired 13 in a row to finish the longest outing of his young career before yielding to Jeremy Jeffress.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

ATHLETICS 5, TWINS 1

Danny Valencia had three hits, including a pair of doubles, Billy Butler added two hits and an RBI, and the Oakland Athletics won their fifth consecutive game with a victory over the Minnesota Twins. Jake Smolinski homered, Jed Lowrie singled twice and scored two runs, and Sean Manaea pitched six innings for his second career victory.