The New York Mets were on their way to a third straight victory with starter R.A. Dickey cruising towards a complete game victory, until the wheels quickly came off for the home team. The Pittsburgh Pirates took advantage of their chances and came away with a 5-1 victory on Tuesday night at Citi Field.
The loss represented the third time on the season-long homestand that the Mets had a lead after seven innings but couldn't hold on for the victory.
Ronny Cedeno led off the eighth inning innocently enough with a single to left, but retired the next two batters to go seven and 2/3 innings without giving up a run. Then he grazed Jose Tabata with a pitch to put runners on first and second and Josh Harrison capped his major league debut with a single to right that scored Cedeno to tie the game at one.
After Andrew McCutchen walked, Neil Walker hit a two-run single to end Dickey's night and put the Pirates up for good.
The New York offense couldn't muster much all night, scoring their only run of the night off James McDonald on an infield single by Jason Bay. The final 10 Mets went down in order as Evan Meek, Jose Veras and Joel Hanrahan needed just 33 pitches to wrap up the final three innings.
These two teams will face off again Wednesday night at 7:10pm when Chris Capuano (3-5) takes on Kevin Correia (7-4).