Mets 2, Phillies 1: Young Pitches a Gem, Paulino's Fifth Hit Wins it in Extras

Chris Young pitched brilliantly tonight, allowing no runs and only two hits through seven innings of work. Young struck out seven, walked three, and pitched better than Cliff Lee. Lee was not his dominant self, but he pitched seven good innings of his own. The Mets had him on the ropes a few times, one of which was when they loaded the bases in the first inning, but could only manage a single run off Lee in the fifth inning when Carlos Beltran drove in David Wright from first base on a double.

Unfortunately for the Mets in the eighth inning, Jason Isringhausen had a poor outing and had a hard time hitting the strike zone. With runners on first and second and two outs, Tim Bydark was called upon to face Ryan Howard, who singled to left field to tie the game. Byrdak was replaced by Francisco Rodriguez, who made things extra interesting by walking the bases loaded before getting a weak groundball out from Raul Ibanez. It was a bad inning, but it could have turned out much worse.

From there, the game went to extras, and the Mets were able to stay in the game largely because of Pedro Beato's three innings of scoreless work spanning the 10th through 12th innings. Neither team scored until Ronny Paulino drilled a one-out double to left field in the top of the 14th inning, scoring David Wright and putting the Mets up 2 to 1.

Taylor Buchholz, who had thrown a scoreless 13th inning, remained on to pitch the 14th and set the Phillies down in order to win the game.

Despite the scoring drought, Paulino and Wright each had a great game at the plate. Paulino had five hits, and Wright had three of his own and drew a walk. Aside from Jason Isringhausen's shaky outing and Tim Bydark's failure to retire Ryan Howard, the Mets' pitching was outstanding.

It took a while, but the Mets broke a three game losing skid and head home to begin a series against the Giants on Tuesday at 7:10 pm.

Unintentionally sexual quote of the game: "Lee spanks it to right." - Dan Shulman

K Counter by sparbz

SB Nation Coverage

* Traditional Recap
* Boxscore
* Amazin' Avenue Gamethread
* The Good Phight Gamethread

Win Probability Added

Big winners: Chris Young, +47.8% WPA, Pedro Beato, +40.2% WPA, Ronny Paulino, +39.1% WPA, Taylor Buchholz, +32.8% WPA, Francisco Rodriguez, +24.0% WPA
Big losers: Tim Byrdak, -32.7% WPA, Ike Davis, -27.0% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Ronny Paulino single in the fourteenth inning, +34.5% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Ryan Howard single in the eighth inning, -32.7% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: +113.8% WPA
Total batter WPA: -63.8% WPA
GWRBI!: Ronny Paulino

Game Thread Roll Call

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