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Hurt by Wright miscues, Mets fall to Padres

Aug 7, 2008 - 3:42 AM By Larry Fleisher PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

FLUSHING, New York (Ticker) -- A baserunning error and one in the field by David Wright were enough to prompt Mets manager Jerry Manuel to ask his third baseman if he needed a day of rest. With every contest having significance, Wright would have none of it.

Wright's error allowed Luis Rodriguez to score the go-ahead run in the seventh inning as the Mets were handed a 4-2 loss by the San Diego Padres on Wednesday.

"It's not a good feeling to see a run score because of one of your fielding gaffes," Wright said. "Errors aren't fun, no matter who's pitching."

Jody Gerut, Brian Giles and rookie Chase Headley hit solo home runs for the Padres, who have won five of six from the Mets. Gerut and Giles connected off Pedro Martinez, who turned in his longest outing, allowing three runs - two earned - and four hits over 6 1/3 innings.

The Mets were not able to support Martinez as they mustered seven hits off Cha Seung Baek through 6 1/3 frames. From the fourth through the seventh, they stranded six runners and the game came down to Wright's 13th error.

The decisive inning started when Rodriguez lined a 3-2 pitch to right for a double and was sacrificed to third by Baek. That ended Martinez's night at 101 pitches and lefthander Pedro Feliciano relieved.

Feliciano, who retired all four batters he faced in the series opener, recorded the first out but walked Edgar Gonzalez. Giles hit a spinning bouncer that went past Wright and into left field, allowing Rodriguez to score.

That came two innings after Wright was doubled off first when Carlos Beltran flied out to right. The gaffes had Manuel considering giving Wright a day off for Thursday's contest. After he found out that fatigue was not the issue, he decided otherwise.

"I wanted to make sure that fatigue is not the problem," Manuel said. "I spoke with him after the game, just to make sure that he was ok. I found out. He's fine."

"We need to win," Wright said. "I think our everyday guys give us the best opportunity to win."

After the Padres went ahead, they were able to get their late-inning trio Mike Adams, Heath Bell and Trevor Hoffman into the contest. Hoffman pitched a hitless ninth for his 24th save in 27 opportunities.

"We did a lot of that last year," San Diego manager Bud Black said. "Good starting pitching, good relief pitching. You saw that today."

Dan Murphy had three hits for the Mets and factored in both runs. He tripled and scored on Edgar Gonzalez's misplay at second in the opening inning and tied the game at 2-2 in the fifth with an RBI single that scored Jose Reyes.

New York lost for the sixth time in eight games and never led after Martinez's first pitch was sent over the right-center field wall by Gerut. Twelve pitches later, Martinez was in 2-0 hole when Giles hit his first home run since June 18.

"I had to rush out of the bullpen," Martinez said. "I'd have loved to take a little more time to breathe. I was just out there warming up on my own pace and forgot about the time."

"Usually you hit them in bunches," Giles said. "Tonight, we hit some balls pretty hard."