R.A. Dickey pitches 8 strong innnings in Mets win

About three inches of grass separated Gerardo Parra's fourth-inning double from the leftfield foul line. R.A. Dickey knows as well as anyone that a tiny fraction of space can make all the difference, and if not for that relative speck of Citi Field meadow, who knows if Sunday would have indeed been The Day.

Instead, Dickey and the Mets had to settle for something less momentous than the franchise's first no-hitter, but still pretty good in a 3-1 victory over the Diamondbacks that secured the series win. Daniel Murphy, warming to the No. 5 spot in the lineup, delivered two RBIs with Josh Thole adding another.

The day's only downer came when Ruben Tejada suffered a quad strain by somehow tripping as he tried to leg out a bunt single in the fourth inning. Tejada was forced to leave the game and the Mets were waiting on MRI results. It appears that Tejada could wind up on the disabled list.

Overall, Dickey -- who had a particularly frisky knuckleball -- allowed four hits, and came within three outs of a complete-game shutout before Justin Upton's RBI double in the ninth inning ruined that as well.

As a result, Dickey gave way to Tim Byrdak, who then handed the ball to Frank Francisco to finish the job for his seventh save. Mission accomplished, but Dickey still wondered what might have been -- if not the no-no, then at least the blown chance at going wire to wire.

"I felt like that's my game," Dickey said. "I've got to land the plane there. I was a little upset with that. About 45 miles into our bus ride to Philly, I'll probably let up a little bit. It leaves a sour taste in my mouth simply because I have an expectation of myself in that situation and that is not it.

"So when I don't meet that expectation, sometimes it's tough to swallow even in the midst of a good outing. But I will be able to celebrate once I process through it a little bit."

Dickey (4-1) was talking specifically about the ninth inning, when he opened with a five-pitch walk to Parra, who already had two hits off him. Even then, Collins stayed put, until Upton served a 1-and-1 knuckler into the left-centerfield gap. Early on, Collins figured Dickey might end the Mets' no-hitter curse, so he was hardly surprised when he pushed into the ninth.

"The way that game started, I actually thought this might be the day," Collins said. "This might be the day because they were not getting good swings, and the ones when they did hit it, they were ground balls. I thought it was going to happen."

There were two spots where Dickey seemed to be in danger. One was the sixth inning, after a one-out walk to Willie Bloomquist and single by Parra. Upton's fly ball to rightfield put runners at first and third, but with Jason Kubel at the plate, Dickey picked Parra off first base to end the inning, then jumped off the mound as if he had just clinched the World Series.

The next hint of trouble occurred in the seventh, when catcher Josh Thole thought Dickey's knuckler had suddenly gone AWOL. That worry continued into the eighth until Dickey got Bloomquist to ground out to end the inning. In a blink, it was back again.

"Sometimes, a little thing happens," Thole said. "Like the wind changes direction. It blows one way, it's a good knuckleball. It blows the other way, it's a bad knuckleball. You need something like they put on the top of a sailboat."

Dickey's only terrible outing this season was April 18 at Turner Field, in a steady rain, when he didn't make it through the fifth inning. Aside from that, Dickey has never pitched less than six innings, and he has a 2.18 ERA to show for those other five starts.

"That water-balloon outing in Atlanta was really the only time I haven't felt good," Dickey said. "As far as where I am now to where I was last year as far as the feel of the knuckleball -- and the weather that we've had -- I'm very pleased. Hopefully, I can just keep that momentum."