David Wright after hitting his 19th home run of the season.
Photo Credit: AP/Yahoo! Sports
In a Mets season marred by dramatics, injuries, bad behavior and poor play, there’s finally something positive to talk about. They finally win their first road series against a National League team.
The Mets (62-61), who have struggled on the road all season, won a rain-shortened game against the Pittsburgh Pirates (40-83) 5-1. The game was called off before the top of the sixth inning.
Jonathon Niese provided another ace-type outing, going five innings and striking out five on the night. The only run came on a Neil Walker single in the third. Niese has given up one run or less in 13 of his starts this season, including his fourth straight Saturday night.
Mets got on the board early through by playing some small ball. Two sacrifice flies, one by Chris Carter in the first and another by Ruben Tejada in the third. But this was the matinee to the David Wright show.
In the fifth inning, Wright flashed some power as he belted a three-run homer to deep center field to add on to the lead.
The orange and blue crew have scored 13 runs in the last two days, responding to Jerry Manuel’s criticism of the team’s offense, calling it “pathetic” and rightfully so. They scored 12 runs in the five games prior to this series.
The last NL road series win was on September 27, 2009 against the Florida Marlins. They have only won two series on the road all year by sweeping two American League bottom dwellers in June, the Pre-Showalter Baltimore Orioles and the Cleveland Indians, respectively.
On Sunday, they will have the opportunity to do the same to the Bucs and claim their first road sweep against the NL. Johan Santana (10-7 2.97 ERA) is scheduled to start in the series finale, going up against Zack Duke (5-12 5.33 ERA).