Church RBI Wins Another; Duffy Rocky

Church Encore

For the second game in a row RYAN CHURCH drove in the winning run for the New York Mets. This transpired on Thursday in Pittsburgh.

PITTSBURGH -- The Mets made sure their largest comeback of the season stood up with a 9-8, 10-inning win Thursday in front of 14,321 at PNC Park. Francisco Rodriguez, who blew the save in the ninth, went back out for the 10th and earned the victory.

Ryan Church singled in the winning run with a two-out RBI. That brought home Fernando Tatis, who had reached by getting hit by a pitch for the second time in the game. He then stole second base to set up the game-winning hit.

"Tatis took off 3-1, [Matt Capps] threw me a changeup, [and I] swung through it, [then] the catcher went out there to talk to Capps," Church explained. "I thought for sure they were going to throw me another changeup, so I was sitting offspeed. I think they helped me out because he threw a two-seamer away and I was just able to use my hands, go right back up the middle."

The largest deficit the Mets overcame this season before Thursday was four runs against the Giants on May 15. It is the biggest comeback of any kind since they beat the Cardinals on Aug. 22, 2006, 8-7, after falling behind 7-1. The Mets have now won back-to-back games after a five-game losing streak.

"Just a freaking roller coaster, man, especially how the day started," Church said. "It just shows you that we're resilient. Regardless [of] who's here, we play as a team."

Church also collected two other base hits to drive his batting average to .292.

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Second Rocky Outing for Duffy

After the hoopla of being named to two all-star games, DANNY DUFFY now suffers the agony of two successive rocky appearances.

Thursday the Kinston Indians racked up six runs in the fourth inning to drive Duffy from the mound and defeat Wilmington 6-1.

Duffy, who two games ago carried a nice 2.85 earned run average, saw his ERA zoom to 3.86 after giving up five hits, five bases on balls and five earned runs in three and one-third innings.

Duffy sailed through the first three innings striking out six and allowing just one hit and one walk but in the fourth the wheels came off. A walk, two singles, an error, a bases-loaded walk, a single, a double, and two more bases on balls told the ugly story.

Just last Friday Duffy gave up six earned runs, his shortest professional outing since 2006.