Dessens holds bridge from Dickey to K-Rod as Mets edge Marlins
New York Mets' Rod Barajas, left, celebrates with teammate Francisco Rodriguez, right, after a baseball game against the Florida Marlins. (June 4, 2010) Credit: AP
Jerry Manuel's ever-changing bullpen pecking order led the Mets' manager to declare Elmer Dessens his main righthanded setup man before Friday night's game against the Marlins at Citi Field.
Dessens, the 39-year-old journeyman, ascended to that lofty status after 41/3 innings of work. He jumped over Ryota Igarashi, Jenrry Mejia and Fernando Nieve - all previous setup candidates whom Manuel has found wanting.
So there Dessens was in the seventh inning, called in to face the dangerous Hanley Ramirez with the Mets up a run and a man on first. He retired Ramirez on a foul pop to first base and worked around a leadoff hit batsman in the eighth.
Then Francisco Rodriguez did in the ninth inning what he couldn't do in the Mets' previous game Wednesday in San Diego - nail down a one-run game - as the Mets beat the Marlins, 4-3.
"Oh, man, it was huge," winning pitcher R.A. Dickey said of Dessens' four-out stint. "Elmer did a great job seizing that moment. This was as much a win for the bullpen as it was for me."
Dessens, who pitched in 28 games for the Mets last season, didn't re-sign as a minor-league free agent until Feb. 6 - just before spring training.
"I went home and talked with my wife about retiring," he said. "I pitched in winter ball and felt pretty good and decided to come back and give it one more chance."
The Mets snapped a six-game losing streak against Florida and improved to 20-9 at Citi Field while washing away what Jeff Francoeur called "the bad taste" from Wednesday's 5-1, 11-inning loss to the Padres.
On Wednesday, K-Rod allowed a tying RBI single to David Eckstein with two outs in the ninth. The Mets lost in the 11th when Adrian Gonzalez hit a walk-off grand slam against Raul Valdes.
On Friday, Rodriguez retired the first two Marlins before Chris Coghlan beat out an infield single and Gaby Sanchez walked on a 3-and-2 pitch. Both runners moved up on a wild pitch with Ramirez batting. But K-Rod got Ramirez on a grounder to third base - David Wright made a nice play on the ball, which was just fair - for his 11th save.
Dickey (3-0, 3.20 ERA) pitched the first 61/3 innings and allowed three runs, seven hits and two walks, with four strikeouts.
Rookie Ruben Tejada snapped a 3-3 tie in the sixth inning with a run-scoring forceout. Tejada was called up earlier in the day to replace Luis Castillo, who went on the disabled list with a bruised right heel.
The Mets, after falling behind 3-0 after three innings, trailed 3-2 entering the sixth against Marlins starter Anibal Sanchez (5-3, 3.18). Wright walked with one out and moved to third on Rod Barajas' double off the leftfield wall on an 0-and-2 pitch. Francoeur followed with a first-pitch single to left to tie the score at 3. Barajas scored the go-ahead run when Tejada grounded into a 6-4 forceout for his first big-league RBI.
