Mets' hi, low: Hernandez hits homer, breaks foot

It wasn't quite a Kirk Gibson moment, but Luis Hernandez will surely take it.

It didn't tie the game at Citi Field last night. It didn't even win the game. (Spoiler alert: the Mets lost.) But Hernandez's home run limp around the bases was certainly the feel-good moment of the game. And darn if he didn't look like Gibson doing it.

One pitch after hitting a ball off the top of his right foot - and being examined for several minutes - Hernandez drilled a 91-mph sinker by Tim Hudson into the rightfield seats to lead off the bottom of the fifth.

He limped slowly from base to base - ala Gibson for the Dodgers in the 1988 World Series - with his foot clearly hurting from the foul ball. But Hernandez made it around to a standing ovation from the crowd of 33,051, before being replaced at second base by Joaquin Arias to start the sixth inning.

Hernandez was diagnosed with a broken bone in his right foot and he will be evaluated further at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan.

"When I came in after the game he was getting ice on his foot and I said, 'I think that's the first time I've ever seen somebody go down, sit there for 10 minutes and then hit a bomb on the first pitch,' " starter Dillon Gee said. "That was something special."

The Mets, however, failed to take advantage of Hernandez's heroics and failed to play spoiler for a second straight day in losing to Atlanta, 4-2. Last night, the Braves led the NL wild card by 11/2 games over San Diego and San Francisco, pending the outcome of the Giants-Brewers game.

The Mets dropped to 14 games behind NL East-leading Philadelphia and are tied for third place in the division. They also were officially eliminated from the NL East race and they are 11 games out of the wild-card lead with 13 games to play.

Hernandez, who is hitting .250 with two home runs in 17 games since being called up on Aug. 27, looked overmatched against Hudson early on, striking out with runners on the corners and the Mets down 1-0 in the second.

Jose Reyes (2-for-4) hit a home run to tie the score in the third, but Gee (1-1) allowed two runs in the fourth.

In the fifth, Hernandez fouled a 1-0 sinker off his right foot and manager Jerry Manuel and a trainer came running from the dugout. "It appeared as though he was in a lot of pain," Manuel said. "He kept saying that he could go, but every time he took a step you could see that he was in some pain."

Manuel did not consider taking him out for a pinch hitter.

"I'm not an expert at those things, so I leave that up to the trainer," he said. "I don't try to make a decision based on what I see. That's not my area. I go out there to support and listen to what the dialogue is. If the guys in charge says, 'hey you can go,' you have to give him that opportunity."

Hernandez heard opportunity knock and answered affirmatively, his shot cutting the Braves' lead to 3-2. But Bobby Parnell gave up a solo homer to Nate McLouth with one out in the top of the ninth, and the Mets managed just one hit and one walk in the final five innings after Hernandez' homer.

Though maybe they never had a chance; their Kirk Gibson was already out of the game.