By ALAN ROBINSON
AP Sports Writer

PITTSBURGH(AP) -- Fernando Tatis' body was laden with ice bags,
Francisco Rodriguez's right arm was wrapped with towels. The
weary New York Mets went through a lot to gain an improbable
victory in an unwanted game.

Two days after appearing to be in a freefall, the Mets pulled
off the kind of victory that can turn a season around. Ryan
Church singled in the go-ahead run in the 10th inning, and the
Mets beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 9-8 on Thursday after trailing
by five runs and wasting a ninth-inning lead.

"It was a roller coaster, especially the way the day started
down 5-0, but it just shows you we are resilient," Church said.

Adam LaRoche hit a tying two-run homer in the ninth against
Francisco Rodriguez before the Mets rebounded to win the makeup
of a June 3 rainout. No doubt they would have preferred their
first day off in 2 1/2 weeks to playing, but the Mets (39-39)
now head into a big weekend series at Philadelphia back at .500
with consecutive wins following a five-game losing streak.

"We could have just said, `Let's pack up and head to Philly,
it's a short flight, let's get this out of the way,' " said
manager Jerry Manuel, who held a lengthy team meeting Tuesday in
Milwaukee. "They chose to fight and I thought that was what was
most impressive. We overcame a lot of things that were
adversary."

Tatis hit a two-run homer among his three hits, was hit twice
with pitches - causing him to say afterward he was in pain from
head to toe - and scored four times as the Mets staged their
biggest comeback of the season to take an 8-6 lead.

They couldn't hold it as Rodriguez, 21 of 23 previously in save
chances, gave up his first tying homer in the ninth since Kevin
Millar went deep for Baltimore on July 25 last year.

"Too bad it wasn't a three-run (homer)," LaRoche said. "We
fought back, which we've done a lot, it just seems like on the
short end of it a lot."

Rodriguez (2-2), angry at himself, lobbied Manuel to stay in.

"He said, `If we score, I need to go back out for myself,"'
Manuel said. "When one of your players is like that, of that
stature and what he means to us, I knew if we came back and he
didn't go back out, he would carry that for a few days."

Rodriguez responded with a perfect 10th, needing a career
regular season-high 46 pitches to get through two innings. The
only other time he threw 46 pitches, during the 2002 World
Series against the Giants, his team also rallied from a five-run
deficit.

"I'm the kind of guy who (if he) makes a mess, cleans it up,"
said Rodriguez, whose previous regular-season high was 42
pitches according to ESPN.com. "I felt really frustrated because
I didn't get the job done."

Matt Capps (1-4), who had converted 12 consecutive save
opportunities since May 15, got the first two batters in the
10th until hitting Tatis with a pitch. Despite being in pain,
Tatis stole second, and Church - expecting a changeup but
getting a fastball - lined a single into center for the Mets'
15th hit.

"It was unbelievable," Tatis said of a day made even longer by
two rain delays that totaled 1 hour, 13 minutes.

Pinch-hitter Daniel Murphy began the comeback with a two-run
single off Paul Maholm in the fourth after the Pirates opened
the early lead against Tim Redding. Jeremy Reed, also
pinch-hitting, gave the Mets the lead for the first time with a
sacrifice fly that made it 6-5 and finished off a four-run fifth
inning.

Tatis added a two-run homer an inning later off Jeff Karstens,
but Garrett Jones cut the Pirates' deficit to 8-6 with a solo
homer in the seventh. Jones, called up from the minors two days
earlier, had three hits and was a single short of the cycle.

"I just wish we had pulled it out," Jones said.

Alex Cora and Nick Evans each had two hits for the Mets, who
scored only 13 runs in their previous six games.

Maholm was 3-1 with 1.96 ERA in six home starts before allowing
six runs and 11 hits in 4 1-3 innings.

Redding, who may be bumped from the rotation after Oliver Perez
makes a rehabilitation start on Friday at Triple-A Buffalo, gave
up five runs and six hits in 2 1-3 innings to raise his ERA to
6.99.

NOTES: Batters were hitting .088 against Rodriguez with runners
on base until LaRoche hit his 12th homer. ... The home team won
the previous six games, three in each city, in the now-completed
season series. ... The Mets are 2-0 in July after going 9-18 in
June. ... New York's previous best rally was from four runs down
while beating the Giants 8-6 on May 15.