Alou leads Mets past Bucs, 10-8

New York scored all its runs in the first and ninth innings.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Moises Alou hit a two-run homer in New York’s five-run first inning, and the Mets did all of their scoring in the first and ninth innings to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 10-8 Wednesday night.

David Wright hit a two-run double ahead of Alou’s third homer in three games as the Mets roughed up Matt Morris for five hits while taking a 5-0 lead in the first. Jose Reyes singled and Luis Castillo walked ahead of Wright’s double, and Carlos Delgado doubled before Alou hit Morris’ first pitch into the left-field bleachers.

In his previous at-bat on Tuesday, Alou’s two-run single in the eighth inning proved the difference in the Mets’ 5-4 victory. The 41-year-old is mostly responsible for pulling the Mets out of a brief slide in which they lost three straight last week by going 7-for-13 with nine RBIs during the Mets’ three-game winning streak.

On a hot streak

Alou homered twice and drove in four runs Sunday against Florida and is 17-for-46 (.370) with six homers and 14 RBIs in is last 12 games.

The Pirates trailed 5-4 going into the ninth, but reliever Shawn Chacon’s throwing error as he tried to get Lastings Milledge at third base on Castillo’s single to the mound led to the Mets’ second five-run inning of the game. After Milledge scored to make it 6-4, the next five Mets got hits. Carlos Beltran hit a two-run double off Damaso Marte and pinch-hitter Damion Easley followed with an RBI double ahead of Alou’s run-scoring single.

Pittsburgh came back with four runs in the bottom of the ninth against reliever Aaron Sele as Jason Bay hit a two-run double to end an 0-for-13 slump. Billy Wagner got the final two outs for his 28th save in 30 opportunities, but only after allowing Jose Bautista’s long fly ball out to center that nearly left the park and Jose Castillo’s RBI single.

John Maine (13-7) needed 117 pitches over five innings to get the victory despite allowing solo home runs to Bautista in the second and Nate McLouth in the fourth. The Pirates, losing their third in a row, got within 5-4 in the sixth against reliever Guillermo Mota on Matt Kata’s pinch-hit double to left that landed in front of a diving Alou and bounded away from him.

Withstands first inning

Morris (7-8), acquired by the Pirates from San Francisco in a surprise trading deadline deal July 31, withstood the five-run first to last six innings by allowing two more singles over the next five innings. Morris is 0-1 with two no-decisions since being picked up, giving up 23 hits and 14 earned runs (6.87 ERA) in 181⁄3 innings.