Mets 7, Pirates 3: Gee and Josh Lead the Way

On a night when Willie Harris was the leadoff hitter, you might not expect the Mets to put 7 runs on the board, but they did. Unsurprisingly, that was in spite of Harris, who failed to reach base in five plate appearances.

Dillon Gee was missing bats all night, striking out eight and walking none over seven innings of work. He allowed three runs, but hey, that's not so bad.

The Pirates got their first pair of runs in the top of the second inning on a home run by Chris Snyder, but the Mets evened up the game in the bottom of the inning with some help from the Pirates.With one out and runners on second and third, a passed ball allowed Daniel Murphy to score from third and Angel Pagan to advance to third. The fact that Pagan was on third allowed him to score on the ensuing swinging-bunt single by Ruben Tejada.

The Mets, who had been hitting single after single all night, scored one run in the fifth on an infield single by Pagan. If not for Ronny Cedeno stopping the ball from going into center field, the Mets would have easily had a second run in the inning, but with the bases loaded and one out, Josh Thole and Jason Pridie couldn't get those rib eye steaks.

Pittsburgh tied things up again in the seventh inning on a groundball out by Ronny Cedeno, who then got caught stealing to end the inning. In the bottom of the inning, Josh Thole got another shot to bring home some runs with runners on the corners and one out, and he drilled a double into the right-center field gap. Carlos Beltran and Daniel Murphy scored easily, and the Mets were up 5-3.

Jason Isringhausen pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning after going 3-0 on Brandon Wood before striking him out. A Justin Turner double and ground out by Murphy added a pair of important insurance runs for the Mets in the bottom of the inning, and Francisco Rodriguez allowed one baserunner in the ninth but closed things out rather easily.

SB Nation Coverage

* Traditional Recap
* Boxscore
* Amazin' Avenue Gamethread
* Bucs Dugout Gamethread

Win Probability Added

Big winners: Daniel Murphy, +22.9% WPA, Angel Pagan, +21.3% WPA
Big losers: Willie Harris, -14.8% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Josh Thole two-run double in the seventh, +20.2% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Chris Snyder two-run home run in the second, -20.1% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: +4.5% WPA
Total batter WPA: +45.5% WPA
GWRBI!: Josh Thole

Game Thread Roll Call

Nice job by sp0rtsfan86; his effort in the game thread embiggens us all.