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| Pirates rout sloppy Mets PITTSBURGH 13, NY METS 1 |
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By Doug Mittler PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer FLUSHING, New York (Ticker) -- First there was a water main break at Citi Field. Then the floodgates opened on Oliver Perez and the New York Mets at Shea Stadium. Xavier Nady drove in three runs and capped a seven-run second inning with a two-run single as the Pittsburgh Pirates routed the Mets, 13-1, on Wednesday. Nate McLouth also had three RBI for the Pirates, who gained a split of the abbreviated two-game series. The start of the game was delayed 40 minutes due to a flood at the Citi Field construction facility adjacent to Shea Stadium. The leak was soon fixed, but that did not help Perez, who (2-2) pitched parts of four seasons with the Pirates and was their 2005 Opening Day starter. The lefthander fell to 0-3 against his former club, allowing seven runs - two earned - and two hits while walking five in 1 2/3 innings, tying the shortest starting outing of his career. "Sometimes you don't have your stuff and you have to find what you can do to get out of the inning," Perez said. "Sometimes I have trouble making strikes." The Mets were charged with three errors, leading to nine unearned runs - three short of the club record set in their expansion season of 1962. "In 162 games, you're going to have stinkers like that," Mets manager Willie Randolph said. Second baseman Luis Castillo made a pivotal miscue that contributed to five unearned runs in the second. Perez loaded the bases on three walks in the inning, but appeared to escape when Tom Gorzelanny hit a potential double-play grounder to second base with one out. Castillo could not get the ball out of his glove in time, and Nady scored the first run. Perez walked McLouth to force in a second run and Freddy Sanchez followed with an RBI single. Jason Bay made it 4-0 with a sacrifice fly, and Ryan Doumit delivered a run-scoring hit to finish Perez. "He was a little erratic," Nady said of Perez. "We just wanted to be patient and try to put some pressure on him." Doumit was caught in a rundown after the hit but reached second when shortstop Jose Reyes failed to cover second base. "Jose usually plays really solid defensively," Randolph addded. "I don't think it is a pattern." The mental mistake proved costly when Nady blooped a two-run single to make it 7-0 and cap the biggest inning for the Pirates since they scored seven against Philadelphia on August 19, 2007. "There were some walks but we took advantage of them with some big hits," Pirates manager John Russell said. "We swung the bats really well." Nady, a former Met, reached base five times with three hits and two walks. Gorzelanny (2-3) was the beneficiary, allowing one hit with five walks in five scoreless innings. The Mets did not have a hit until Carlos Delgado singled in the fourth, when Gorzelanny worked out of a two-on, one-out jam. Sanchez made it 8-0 with an RBI double in the fifth off Nelson Figueroa. Third baseman David Wright and left fielder Angel Pagan were charged with errors in a five-run sixth inning that included an RBI double by Nady and a two-run double by McLouth. "We didn't do much right today," Wright said. The game included 16 walks, tied for the most in the majors this season. |
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