Mike Pelfrey pitched seven and two thirds innings of two-run baseball and Carlos Beltran blasted a two-run homer to help the New York Mets defeat the San Francisco Giants 5-2 and prevent a three-game sweep.
Less than 24 hours after being shut down by Tim Lincecum, the Mets offense still only managed five hits, but the two biggest came from the bats of Beltran and Jose Reyes with an assist from Giants' Jonathan Sanchez. The San Francisco lefty walked six, including Scott Hairston and Pelfrey following a run-scoring double play by Ronny Paulino seemed to diffuse a potential Mets rally. However, Reyes put New York up 3-0 with his third triple of the season.
The Giants got on the board in the fourth when Mike Fontenot took Pelfrey deep. Pelfrey got in trouble again in the fifth, starting with a Reyes error that put Nate Shierholtz on second base. He got the next two batters, but walked the eighth place hitter Eli Whiteside and surrendered a single up the middle to Sanchez to cut the Mets lead to 3-2. With his game on the verge of collapsing, Pelfrey composed himself and got Aaron Rowand to pop up to first base for the third out.
After two quiet innings, the Mets offense made one of their few hits count again. Beltran followed a David Wright single with a fly ball to left field that just managed to reach the first row of seats to make it account for the final score.
With Pelfrey tiring in the eighth inning, Terry Collins decided to go right to Francisco Rodriguez. The closer didn't have to do much to get out of the inning, as Paulino gunned down Emmanuel Burriss trying to steal second base on just his second pitch of the day.
Things got a little dicier for Rodriguez in the ninth. He sandwiched an Aubrey Huff strike out in between two walks to bring the tying run to the plate in Ross. Ross worked the count full before loading the basses with a single to left. As his pitch count was climbing, Rodriguez struck out Miguel Tejada and pinch-hitter Buster Posey to pick up his seventh save of the season.
The Mets will be back in action Friday night at Citi field against the similarly cash-strapped Los Angeles Dodgers. Jon Niese will take the ball for New York, while Hiroki Kuroda is schedule to start for LA.