Mets dig out of 7-0 hole to beat Pirates

Terry Collins sure doesn't look like a stinkin' fool now.

A day after the Mets' manager ripped into his team during a closed-door clubhouse meeting, his players responded by overcoming a seven-run deficit to beat Pittsburgh, 9-8, in the series finale at Citi Field yesterday.

Collins' postgame rant after Wednesday's 9-3 loss to the Pirates may have struck a chord deep within his players, but it was Carlos Beltran's three-run blast in the third inning that was the catalyst for the comeback.

The rightfielder could have sat idly by and been a spectator after Collins approached him about getting a day off. Beltran, however, wouldn't hear of it.

"Right now we're missing guys," said Beltran (2-for-4), who hit his first home run since May 12 and had four RBIs to pass Cleon Jones for seventh place on the club's all-time RBI list. He has 525 in his Mets career. "I just feel it's my responsibility to at least put myself in the lineup . . . It's not a good time [to sit]. I told him I'm good to go."

By the time the Mets batted in the third, Mike Pelfrey had put his club in a 7-0 hole. But they clawed their way back, scoring three runs on Beltran's homer, which ricocheted off the second-deck signage in leftfield, and four more in the sixth on Beltran's double, a two-out, two-run single by Ruben Tejada, a pinch-hit RBI single by Daniel Murphy and a passed ball that allowed Tejada to score. That tied it at 7.

The Mets scored the go-ahead runs off Jose Veras in the eighth on Tejada's sacrifice fly and a two-out, bases-loaded walk to Beltran. The second run proved important when Xavier Paul tripled off Francisco Rodriguez to lead off the ninth and scored on Neil Walker's two-out single. But Rodriguez, who had two teeth extracted Wednesday, got Lyle Overbay to foul out to third and earned his 16th save.

Maybe Collins' rant had something to do with the comeback. "He was upset,'' Justin Turner said, "so we definitely wanted to go out today and bust our butts. It was just a great job of battling back."

For a while, it seemed Collins' words had fallen on deaf ears. Pelfrey, whose ERA went up to 5.56, allowed seven runs and 10 hits in the first three innings before retiring the side in order in the fourth and fifth. But his teammates came to his rescue.

"I go out there and pitch bad like that, I deserve the loss," said Pelfrey, who hasn't won since May 10. "Luckily, the guys picked me up today."

Ronny Paulino led off the eighth with a single and was replaced by pinch runner Willie Harris. Collins elected to use pitcher Chris Capuano as a pinch hitter to bunt Harris over. But after a balk by Veras allowed Harris to go to second, Collins substituted Josh Thole with a 1-and-1 count.

"When he got to second base, I said let's take a chance of driving him in," Collins said. "I thought Josh would handle the bat, and he was going in the game anyway."

Harris moved to third on a wild pitch during Thole's at-bat and scored on Tejada's sacrifice fly. Thole scored the insurance run when Veras issued his fourth walk of the inning to Beltran with the bases loaded.

Jason Isringhausen (1-0) picked up his first win for the Mets since June 8, 1999.

Afterward, Collins smiled as he walked through the clubhouse, patting his players on the back. "You need wins like this to show you can do it," he said.

And "sometimes," Beltran, said, "you need a meeting like that to wake everyone up."