Evans’ single in 10th sends Mets past Bucs

NEW YORK

Pinch-hitter Nick Evans singled home the winning run off Chan Ho Park in the 10th inning to give the New York Mets a 1-0 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday night.

Evans, with three hits in 11 at-bats this season, drove in Ruben Tejada, a .188 hitter who had a one-out double. Jose Tabata fielded Evans’ hit off Park (1-2) in shallow left, but his throw was off line and Tejada scored easily.

Hisanori Takahashi (9-6) pitched two innings to run his scoreless streak to 12 outings and 131/3 innings. He got help from a caught stealing in the ninth after a walk, and in the 10th, when Andrew McCutchen led off with a double but was thrown out at third trying to advance on a bunt.

The victory was the Mets’ sixth in their last at-bat.

With the New York Jets playing their NFL season opener on Monday Night Football, the Yankees at Tampa Bay for first place in the AL East, Jay-Z and Eminem rhyming in the ballpark in the Bronx and the U.S. Open men’s final taking place across the street from Citi Field, there was little interest in a rain-delayed matchup between anemic offenses.

In fact, the Mets posted a message on the scoreboard during the second inning inviting the sparse crowd that waited out a 43-minute delay at the start to fill the pricey seats behind the dugouts.

Those who did make it saw two young pitchers, the Mets’ Dillon Gee and Pittsburgh’s James McDonald, make promising starts.

Starting in place of injured Johan Santana last Tuesday, Gee took a no-hitter into the sixth inning against the Washington Nationals in his major league debut. He wasn’t quiet that effective against the worst-hitting team in the National League. Using a deceptive changeup, the right-hander gave up five hits — two weak doubles just inside third-base line — and walked four, one intentionally. He put runners on base in five innings and loaded them in the fourth.

Gee was pulled after 106 pitches.

A group of Pedro Alvarez fans wearing yellow Pirates T-shirts with his name and number on the back stood and cheered the New Yorker with every at-bat. Alvarez, who went to a private high school in New York, was playing in his first big league game in the Big Apple.