12 INNINGS
Mets 3
Marlins 2
They played a song from “Rocky” as Mike Jacobs walked to the plate with two on and two outs in the bottom of the 12th.
Then Jacobs filled out the rest of the scene.
The Mets’ rookie first baseman grounded a walk-off RBI single down the right-field line last night, giving the Mets a 3-2 victory over the Marlins in 12 innings, their longest game of the year.
David Wright began the rally by slamming a two-out opposite-field double to right-center off Florida’s Brian Moehler. The Marlins then intentionally walked Mike Piazza, bringing up Jacobs. On a 2-2 pitch, Jacobs grounded it down the line, celebrating before he even got to first base.
The Mets have now won three of four and avoided being mathematically eliminated from the NL East race. They are 11½ games back of the Braves and have 12 games left.
Before Jacobs’ game-winner, the affair was highlighted by a fantastic pitching duel between Kris Benson and Florida’s A.J. Burnett. Benson allowed two runs in seven innings, while Burnett no-hit the Mets for six frames before finishing with a line of eight innings and two runs (one earned) on only two hits. The Mets also got strong bullpen work from Victor Zambrano, Roberto Hernandez and Aaron Heilman, who tossed five scoreless combined.
Before the game, manager Willie Randolph had said that Pedro Martinez, Tom Glavine and Benson were the only three starting pitchers basically assured of being in the rotation next year. Benson, though, had been struggling lately. After he pitched and won on Aug. 16, he was 9-4 with a 3.49 ERA. In his five starts since (entering last night), he had gone 0-5 with a 7.66 mark.
Last night Benson gave up only four hits, though two were pretty big. One was Paul Lo Duca’s two-out solo homer in the second that put the Marlins up 1-0. Another came when Carlos Delgado untied a 1-1 game by crushing Benson’s first pitch of the seventh over the rightfield wall, putting the Marlins up 2-1.
Trailing 1-0 after two, the Mets had their first runner reach in the third when Jacobs drew a leadoff walk, but he was wiped out when Anderson Hernandez grounded into a force play. One out later, Hernandez tried to steal second but was thrown out.
The next inning, Jose Reyes led off by hitting a grounder to short, and Robert Andino’s throw was more than just off-line it sailed behind Reyes as he ran to first. Reyes took second on the error and stole third as Victor Diaz struck out.
With one out and Reyes on third, Carlos Beltran needed only to produce a sac fly. Instead, he hit the first pitch softly to third, keeping Reyes at third. But with Cliff Floyd up, Burnett turned out to be more efficient for the Mets with a man on third than Beltran was – the righthander threw a wild pitch, allowing Reyes to score and tie the game. Beltran went 0-for-4 and heard a bunch of boos.
Burnett carried his no-hitter and a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the seventh. But Victor Diaz sliced a leadoff double just fair along the right-field line, breaking up the no-hit bid. One out later, Floyd smoked the ball off the right-field wall. Floyd hit the ball on a line so hard, he was held to a single. But it was an RBI single that scored Diaz, tying up the game.
The Mets also made a key defensive play from to keep it tied in the eighth. With Jeff Conine on second and Delgado on first and two outs, Juan Encarnacion singled to left. Floyd fired home, and Piazza handled the skip, hung in there as Conine crashed into him, keeping the game tied.