Mets pull caper at The Bank with late comeback

David Wright's heads-up baserunning play drew an errant throw from second baseman Pete Orr in the seventh inning Tuesday, allowing the tying run to score in a 7-4 Mets victory over the Phillies. It was the Mets' league-leading 10th comeback win in 30 games, and their second in two nights at Citizens Bank Park.

After the Mets put two runners aboard while trailing by two in the seventh, Wright hit an RBI single to right field, where Hunter Pence fielded the ball and threw it up the line. But as Kirk Nieuwenhuis reached third base, Wright wandered halfway between first and second and got caught in a rundown.

Wright hustled to avoid tag after tag, then broke for an uncovered second base as Nieuwenhuis strayed far enough from safety for Orr to try to gun him down. But his throw skidded into the area beyond third base, allowing Nieuwenhuis to score easily with the tying run.

The next batter, Lucas Duda, ripped a game-winning single off Antonio Bastardo, capping the Mets' second consecutive comeback in Philadelphia. An inning later, Ramon Ramirez and Tim Byrdak pitched around a leadoff single to keep the Mets ahead.

Wright's smart baserunning took Mets starter Miguel Batista off the hook, after the 41-year-old struggled in his first start as a member of the rotation. Batista nearly did not make it out of the second inning after giving up Pence's two-run homer in the first, then a pair of run-scoring hits in the second.

But Batista did settle down, pitching well in the middle innings before Manny Acosta bailed him out of a two-on, one-out jam in the sixth. It was Batista's second start of the season but his first crack at the rotation, after Chris Schwinden proved unable to hold down a starting spot in place of the injured Mike Pelfrey.

Phillies starter Joe Blanton had the reverse sort of luck. Strong over his first three hitless innings, Blanton began struggling in the fourth, when Daniel Murphy tagged him for an RBI single. Blanton then walked the leadoff batter in the seventh inning, and allowed consecutive hits to Andres Torres and Nieuwenhuis before departing.

In the ninth, Nieuwenhuis added insurance on a sac fly and Duda drove in another run on a single.