Bucs lose lead, but win in 14

By Bill Brink

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

NEW YORK

Chris Stewart’s RBI single in the 14th inning broke a tie and the Pirates beat the New York Mets, 5-3, Saturday night at Citi Field.

The Pirates led through six innings until the Mets tied it in the seventh. After that, both bullpens pitched excellent baseball, with Hansel Robles and Joe Blanton each putting forth three scoreless innings.

Francisco Cervelli doubled for the second time to start the 14th inning, this time against lefty Sean Gilmartin. Starling Marte bounced a grounder to first and Daniel Murphy tried to get the lead runner at third, but his throw was off target. Stewart pinch-hit and singled up the middle, sending pinch-runner Pedro Florimon. Sean Rodriguez blooped a single to left, driving across another run.

That would be it. Travis Ishikawa bunted into a double play when Gilmartin caught his pop-up and doubled off Chris Stewart, and Rodriguez was thrown out stealing second with the red-hot Gregory Polanco at the plate.

Blanton struck out four of the first five batters he faced, but walked pinch-hitter Lucas Duda with two outs in the 12th. Ruben Tejada singled to left, but Blanton struck out Wilmer Flores to strand the runners. Blanton struck out six in three scoreless innings.

Aramis Ramirez and Polanco homered for the Pirates, giving them a 3-0 lead in the third. But two seventh-inning homers from Juan Uribe and Michael Conforto off Charlie Morton evened the score. Morton allowed three runs, two earned, in 61/3 innings, while walking one and striking out nine.

New York’s batters had transformed the lineup into a viable unit during the past month. Coming into Saturday’s game, the Mets scored a league-leading 105 runs, or 5.3 per game, since July 24. That corresponded to a 14-6 record. They scored 3.4 runs per game prior to that.

The acquisition of Yoenis Cespedes at the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline helped. Cespedes went 3-for-5 with a homer and a double Friday night and was hitting .304 with five doubles and two homers since the Detroit Tigers sent him to New York. Trading for Kelly Johnson and Juan Uribe also led to incremental improvement, as did the promotion of prospect Michael Conforto.

The wheels came off Morton’s once-stellar outing in a matter of minutes. Through six innings he allowed two hits, both singles to Yoenis Cespedes.