Those Mets

DAVIS HEROIC AS METS TRUMP PADRES

The instant replay was conclusive: Ike Davis’ ball didn’t hit the Throgs Neck Bridge, it merely grazed Long Island Sound. The rookie first baseman saved the only no-doubter of last night for when it counted most — the bottom of the 11th inning against Padres reliever Edward Mujica — allowing the Mets to celebrate their fourth straight victory and ninth in a row at home, 2-1 at Citi Field. An inning after Angel Pagan just missed a game-ending homer, and after Jose Reyes was awarded a home run in the seventh on instant replay, Davis hammered a 1-1 splitter roughly 450 feet into the right-field upper deck to end it. BOX SCORE “To win a game with one swing, walk-offs are amazing,” Davis said. “I think that’s the first true walk-off of my life.” It meant Mike Pelfrey’s nine-inning gem, in which he pitched eight scoreless after surrendering an RBI double to Adrian Gonzalez in the first, wasn’t in vain. Pagan made the night memorable for Davis by issuing a towel filled with whipped cream to the first baseman’s face, moments after the Mets celebrated at home plate. “[Davis] made me look bad,” Pagan said, noting that he had received the same pitch from Mujica an inning earlier, but came up just short. Pagan got a triple on that 10th-inning rocket to right field, but after later viewing the replay was convinced he might have actually cleared the fence — the ball hit a fan’s arm near the orange line atop the wall. Umpires huddled, but the discussion was over whether Pagan should have been awarded a ground-rule double or allowed to stay at third. Pagan got the triple, but never scored. “It was not going to be a home run because it was below the fence,” umpiring crew chief Tim Welke told The Post. Reyes gave the Mets a jolt with a replay-aided home run in the seventh to make it 1-1. Reyes swatted a 1-0 pitch from Clayton Richard toward the top of the left-field fence and stopped at second with an apparent double after third-base umpire Mike DiMuro ruled the ball in play. But after a brief meeting, three umpires disappeared from the field to examine the replay, which conclusively showed Reyes’ shot hitting above the orange line atop the fence before rebounding onto the field. “I [thought] I got it, but in Citi Field you never know,” Reyes said. Davis took the pressure off everybody with his seventh homer in 158 at-bats. “The bigger the situation, the bigger the man — that’s what Ike brings,” manager Jerry Manuel said. “When you have that type of poise you kind of live for those moments and have your best at-bats in those moments.” Gonzalez’s RBI double in the first gave the Padres a 1-0 lead, but Pelfrey slammed the door, allowing only three hits over the next eight innings. Pelfrey had last pitched nine innings on Aug. 25, 2008, against the Astros. Richard tiptoed around trouble until allowing Reyes’ blast in the seventh. The lefty allowed consecutive singles to Jeff Francoeur and Ruben Tejada in the second before retiring Pelfrey to end the inning. In the fourth, Rod Barajas doubled with two outs and was left stranded. An inning later, Jason Bay struck out with runners on the corners to kill a scoring threat. “These are the types of games we’re going to have to win against this type of team,” Francoeur said. “When you’re playing at home you feel good about getting that last shot.” (NY Post)