Dickey, offense step up as Mets avoid sweep

MILWAUKEE - Roughly 90 minutes before Sunday's first pitch, R.A. Dickey sat on a dugout bench, wearing shorts and shower shoes, reading "Life of Pi," a novel about one man's spiritual journey.

In many ways, Dickey, a knuckleball specialist, is not your typical major-league pitcher. And in the Mets' patched-together rotation, he's one of its least likely success stories. More importantly, Dickey shows the tenacity that John Maine and Oliver Perez did not, which is why he was able to stick around for seven innings Sunday in the Mets' 10-4 victory over the Brewers.

Unlike Maine, Dickey can throw strikes. Unlike Perez, he can make in-game adjustments, and that was necessary when his knuckleball, well, wasn't knuckling. Rickie Weeks led off with the first of his two homers as the Brewers had five hits and a 2-1 lead after two. "I was thinking that he might not have it today," Jerry Manuel said.

But Dickey relied more on what he called "conventional tricks" to get him through those early innings before rediscovering his knuckleball later. Once he found it, the Mets broke through on Luis Castillo's two-out single with the bases loaded in the sixth to take a 4-2 lead. Angel Pagan added a two-run homer in the seventh and Jeff Francoeur's two-run double keyed a four-run ninth as the Mets avoided the sweep.

"I really had to work hard and battle," said Dickey, who also had an RBI single. ". . . I tried to miss some barrels. Rickie [Weeks] squared a couple up, but other than that, I felt like they just hit pieces of it."

Not enough to prevent Dickey from improving to 2-0 with a 2.84 ERA in three starts since replacing Perez on May 19. Sundaywas critical after the Mets failed to score for Johan Santana in Friday's 2-0 loss and couldn't make up for Fernando Nieve's implosion Saturday.

Dickey was hardly flawless in allowing nine hits and four runs. But he has earned the trust of Manuel, who plans to keep him in the rotation for at least another turn as the Mets (26-25) got only their fourth win in their last 16 road games.

"Oh yeah, I think he deserves another shot, no doubt about it," Manuel said. "I think he is a guy that in all of his starts has given us a chance to win, and when you get that, you got to keep going with it. We'll keep riding that until it cools off."

Offensively, Francoeur seems to be heating up after four more hits - including a pair of doubles - and six in his last eight at-bats after Saturday's closed-door meeting with Manuel. The topic was tuning out too many outside voices. "I think it's just a matter of what conversations he has on the way to the West Coast," Manuel said. "You never know with Frenchy, but I don't think he can contact anybody at 30,000 feet up in the air."

Francoeur started the rally in the sixth with a one-out single. Jose Reyes was intentionally walked to load the bases with two outs for Castillo, who was in a 1-for-19 funk. But Castillo punched a two-run single up the middle. Asked if he was irritated by the Reyes walk, Castillo said, "I just needed to get a hit."

The Mets also badly needed the victory, and for that, they can thank Dickey. "I think with the pitch that I throw, I probably have to prove myself more than most because people want to see that it's a trustworthy pitch," Dickey said. "Ultimately, my hope is to throw 180, 200 innings and at the end of the year and look back and see I was a big pick-me-up for this team."