Hairston hits for cycle but Rockies rout Mets

DENVER -- Things were looking pretty good for the Mets going to the bottom of the fifth inning at Coors Field on Friday night.

They had a four-run lead. Chris Schwinden was going for his first big-league win and needed three more outs to qualify.

Here's what happened in the bottom of the fifth:

Fifteen batters, 11 runs, seven hits, five RBIs by Carlos Gonzalez, four errors (three on throws), three pitchers, three walks, two three-run home runs, two Terry Collins arguments, one hit batter.

The Mets could not overcome the nightmarish inning in their 18-9 loss to Colorado, even though Scott Hairston became the 10th Met to hit for the cycle. And he did it by the sixth inning. Jose Reyes had the last Mets cycle on June 21, 2006.

"Bittersweet, definitely,'' Hairston said of his feat. "It was great while it was happening, but when they kept scoring runs, it really wasn't that enjoyable."

Collins double-switched Hairston out of the game in the seventh to bring in Bobby Parnell, who immediately gave up a grand slam to Ramon Hernandez. Hairston had made the last out of the top of the inning.

"You play enough games here, things like that are going to possibly take place,'' Collins said. "One thing I was trying to think about was it happened pretty fast, obviously, and I didn't want to start burning out my bullpen in the fifth inning. We had to get some outs and we didn't get them."

The Mets, who had won three in a row, committed six errors. Said Collins, "That certainly is something you can't do anymore."

Schwinden had been staked to a 6-2 lead thanks to a four-run outburst against Esmil Rogers, who replaced starter Drew Pomeranz (left forearm tightness) in the fifth.

Hairston, who earlier hit a single and solo home run, tripled home the tiebreaking run and scored on Lucas Duda's single. Mike Nickeas drove in a run with a hit and so did Schwinden.

Collins did his best to get Schwinden through the fifth, letting him face Gonzalez as the tying run after the first three Rockies reached base and a run scored to make it 6-3. It backfired when Gonzalez hit a monster home run to right-center to tie the score.

The inning had opened when Eric Young Jr. hit a comebacker that Schwinden threw high to first. Young was called safe on the error. That was Collins' first argument. (The second was when Jonathan Herrera was hit by a pitch.)

"I was getting in a good groove there the last three innings, and throwing the ball away there wasn't planned,'' Schwinden said. "Just kind of snowballed from there."

Young stole second and moved to third on a throwing error by Nickeas. After an RBI single by Herrera and Gonzalez's blast, Collins called on Manny Acosta. By the time Acosta was gone, it was 13-6. He was charged with seven runs in one-third of an inning. Schwinden was charged with six runs (five earned) in four-plus innings.

Dexter Fowler hit a three-run home run off Acosta right after Ruben Tejada dropped a pickoff attempt for error No. 3.

The fourth error came when Herrera tried to score from first on Gonzalez's two-run single to right. It was like a Little League play: Herrera just kept running around third base even though Mets first baseman Zach Lutz had the ball in the infield. Lutz threw it wide, though, and the ball bounced off Nickeas' glove for error No. 4, charged to Lutz.

Despite the four errors, only one of the 11 runs was unearned. The errors and runs allowed tied Mets records for a single inning.

Hairston did his best to bring the Mets back with a two-run double in their three-run sixth that made it 13-9. Hairston finished 4-for-5 with four RBIs. The four hits tied a career high. Tejada also had four hits, all singles, to tie a career high.

They added a fifth error in the seventh inning when Josh Thole was called for catcher's interference when Herrera swung at a pitchout and hit Thole's glove. Thole batted for Nickeas in the sixth.

Daniel Murphy threw away a ball in the seventh for error No. 6.

Gonzalez had six RBIs and Hernandez drove in five runs for the Rockies, who outhit the Mets 19-17.

"It was probably one of the most craziest games I've ever been a part of,'' Hairston said. "But it's just one day in a season and we've got to put it behind us."