Mets finally make it to .500 mark

ATLANTA -- Of all the freakish events that occurred Wednesday night at Turner Field, from marble-sized hail pellets to two hits by Jason Bay, none was more surprising than the final result.

"The hail was a nice touch," Terry Collins said afterward.

But yes, the Mets are finally back to .500, courtesy of a twice-delayed 4-0 victory over the Braves. It took 26 days, two failed chances on this road trip and another 153 minutes of rain delays for the Mets to even their record at 34-34 after midnight on Thursday. The last time it happened was May 20, when they were 22-22.

"We've been saying it's a stepping-stone," Bay said. "While it's not the end goal, you've got to get there -- and then get above it."

The Mets also tightened their grip on third place in the NL East as they moved two games ahead of the Marlins, who were swept by the Phillies. Jose Reyes scored the first run after leading off the game with a double and drove in another with an RBI groundout in the seventh. Angel Pagan smacked a two-run homer off Tim Hudson in the fourth to help power the Mets to their ninth win in 13 games.

"Well, we're here," Collins said of the .500 mark, "but you've got to stay here now. The accomplishment is to now continue to push forward and move above .500.

"It's been a long road, and a long uphill battle, and I'm so proud of the way the guys hung in there. But now we've got to move forward. We've got to keep moving."

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The Mets' much-maligned bullpen picked up Dillon Gee, who combined with three relievers on a two-hitter. Gee missed out on win No. 8 when he did not return after the fourth inning because of the second delay, which lasted 71 minutes.

D.J. Carrasco retired all six batters he faced and Bobby Parnell surrendered only one hit over the next two innings to set up Francisco Rodriguez, who earned his 27th finished game, but in a non-save situation.

Gee allowed only one hit -- Alex Gonzalez's two-out double in the second -- and struck out five in four scoreless innings. As soon as Gee retired Gonzalez on a pop-up to end the fourth, the umpires waved for the tarp. Collins said he would have let Gee return after roughly 25 minutes, but when it went beyond that, he pulled the plug.

"I was hoping that it wouldn't last that long," Gee said. "It was probably the best I've felt all year."

Given Gee's history of shoulder problems, and that he's still pitching with a torn labrum, there was no sense taking that risk. Pitching coach Dan Warthen said it was the best stuff that he had seen from Gee all season.

"That's a big statement," Collins said, "because he's pitched pretty darn good."

The evening wasn't a total washout for Gee. He still lowered his ERA from 3.05 to 2.86 in his 12 appearances this season. Narrowing it down to his nine starts, Gee's ERA shrinks to 2.48 with 19 walks and 45 strikeouts during that span. In the last 19 games, the Mets' rotation has a 2.47 ERA, the lowest in the majors during that stretch.

Gee was done, but that didn't mean the Mets were finished for the night. In the seventh, they loaded the bases with no outs, and only wound up with one run on Jose Reyes' RBI grounder to first -- thanks to Eric Hinske's great diving stop on the play.

The Mets got the jump on Hudson early -- just as they did Tuesday night with Jair Jurrjens. Once again, it was Reyes who provided the initial jolt by leading off the game with a double and then taking third when Jason Heyward missed the cutoff man for an error. One pitch later, Reyes came trotting home on Ruben Tejada's RBI groundout to short.

In the fourth, with the wind starting to pick up, Daniel Murphy opened with a single to centerfield and Pagan launched a high fly ball toward the foul pole in right. The long drive had the distance -- it was just a matter of fighting off the crosswind, and the ball hooked inside the pole.

The umpiring crew for Wednesday's game was expected to give the playing surface additional scrutiny after the Mets complained to the commissioner's office about the unnaturally wet conditions during the previous night's 4-3 win over the Braves.

So what happened? It rained.

Leave it to Mother Nature to put to rest any conspiracy theories left over from Tuesday, when Reyes slipped on three separate occasions -- because of suspicious circumstances.

Collins acknowledged that the Mets had sent an email complaint, but did not rip the Braves for the field's condition.

"It was too wet," Collins said. "We did what we're supposed to. We sent something which said the field was overly wet and I don't know what they are going to do."

What the Braves did before Wednesday's game was deny any efforts to sabotage Reyes, which was pretty much the anticipated response.

"There was absolutely no gamesmanship involved," Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said.