The Mets ended their two-game losing streak Saturday night by beating the Arizona Diamondbacks 9-6 in an offensive surge capped by a grand slam by Angel Pagan in the eighth inning. It was the second grand slam in a week and the first of Pagan’s career. Fernando Tatis had hit one against the Rockies to win a game.
Oliver Perez started the game and had another typical Ollie performance. He walked five batters but held the D-backs to two runs in five innings. Perez had the lead 5-3 when he left the game but the bullpen let him down. They’ve been rocky over the past few starts.
Bobby Parnell allowed two runs in the sixth inning to tie the game at 5. After the Pagan grand slam, Brian Stokes gave up a home run in the top of the ninth inning to Mark Reynolds, his second in as many games against the Mets. Closing the scoring gap to three runs would cause Jerry Manuel to bring in Francisco Rodriguez, who got his 24th save of the year and his first since the All-Star break. Pedro Feliciano picked up the win after pitching 1 2/3 scoreless innings.
After two games of two-run outputs, the Mets erupted for nine Saturday night. Pagan had two hits and five RBI. Alex Cora also had two hits and an RBI. As a matter of fact, every starter had a hit except for Luis Castillo. Even Perez got a hit.
Mike Pelfrey takes the mound in Monday afternoon’s game.
