Blanco matches Barajas: Walk-off HR in 11th this time
Another day, another Mets catcher sending the fans home happy. Henry Blanco was the one who delivered yesterday, sending Guillermo Mota's 1-and-0 fastball just over the leftfield wall with none out in the 11th inning to give the Mets a 5-4 win over the Giants at windy Citi Field.
About 16 hours earlier, Rod Barajas' two-run homer in the ninth ended matters against the Giants. To have the Mets' two catchers launch winning home runs in consecutive games is extremely rare; to have yesterday's come from Blanco, who now has 59 career home runs, was even more so.
"I didn't think it was going to go out, so I just kept running hard," Blanco said. "The second-base umpire [Rob Drake] told me. He said, 'Relax, it's a home run.' "
Blanco gave the Mets their ninth straight win at Citi Field and their second straight in which they blew a late lead.
On Friday night, Francisco Rodriguez gave up a tying homer in the top of the ninth before Barajas' homer ended it.
Yesterday, after Johan Santana pitched 72/3 innings and had a chance to escape the eighth with a one-run lead, Mets manager Jerry Manuel went to his bullpen for one out before Rodriguez came on for the ninth.
But with a runner on first, Fernando Nieve gave up a single to Eli Whiteside and Pedro Feliciano allowed a single to Aubrey Huff to drive in the tying run. "I thought we had enough in the bullpen to get that one out," Manuel said.
Santana was charged with all four Giants runs. He allowed eight hits and struck out six in his longest outing of the season.
Rodriguez held the Giants scoreless in the ninth and 10th innings and Hisanori Takahashi (3-1) pitched a perfect 11th for the win.
The Mets benefited from Giants starter Todd Wellemeyer's wildness, scoring three early runs with the benefit of only one hit. Jason Bay's sacrifice fly in the first drove in Angel Pagan, who had walked, and Pagan flared a ball to left that got past a diving Mark DeRosa for a two-run triple in the third.
"I had a plan," said Pagan, whose 12 RBIs are tied for fourth on the team. "Every time we had a guy in scoring position, he was using the same pitches. I got the pitch I wanted and I drove it to the opposite side."
Bay knocked in Jose Reyes with a single in the fifth, sending Wellemeyer to the dugout. But three Giants relievers shut down the Mets for the next 52/3 innings.
"We weren't hitting the ball too well. I was wondering where we were going to get a run there," Manuel said.
Turned out it was from the same place the Mets got their winning runs the night before. That they have calmed things down at home after a disappointing 2-4 road trip - similar to what they did three weeks ago, when they followed up a 2-4 road swing with a 9-1 run at Citi Field - shows some mettle.
And that it was Blanco with the walk-off homer, touching off another celebration of head pounds and body blows at the plate, shows that this team has some clutch hitting in a lot of different places.
"It's kind of the M.O. of this team. It's different guys all the time," Bay said. "And again, it's a good guy, good teammate who does it.''
