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Tim Healey

Mets rally in eighth to beat Diamondbacks

PHOENIX _ Decidedly unclutch for most of Friday night, the New York Mets used a change in luck to change the game, rallying in the eighth for a 5-4 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The Mets entered the penultimate inning just 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position, out-hitting Arizona except for when it mattered most. Then, with two outs, came the good fortune: a single by Todd Frazier on an off-balance swing, a soft single by Adeiny Hechavarria poked down the rightfield line, and an infield single by J.D. Davis that looked like a routine inning-ending groundout until reliever Matt Andriese reached for it with his glove. That tied the score at 4-4.

Pinch hitter Carlos Gomez put the Mets ahead for good with an RBI double ripped barely fair down the third-base line. Because plate umpire Jim Wolf had left the game in the second after Frazier's foul tip hit his mask (which fell off his face), there was no third-base umpire available to rule fair or foul, and because the ballboy down the leftfield line thought it was foul, he picked up a ball that was in play.

That took a while to sort out. Davis was placed at third and Gomez at second, but the game-deciding play required at least three conversations to confirm: the umpires with Arizona manager Torey Lovullo, the umpires with Mets manager Mickey Callaway and the umpires with MLB's replay headquarters in New York City. After several minutes of uncertainty, the call was upheld.

Callaway opted for an unusual late-inning combo to finish it off. Seth Lugo, on his first day back from the injured list, pitched around a scoreless eighth, getting two pop-ups to work around Gomez's misplay of a fly ball into a triple. Robert Gsellman, filling in for Edwin Diaz, tossed the ninth for the save. Gsellman snapped a streak of four consecutive appearances in which he allowed at least one run.

For the Mets (28-29), that made a winner out of Zack Wheeler (4.68 ERA), who allowed four runs in seven innings.

He cruised until the sixth, when Ketel Marte and Christian Walker homered. The former was a fly ball to right, the latter a scorched line drive _ 110.4 mph, 447 feet _ to left.

Including those dingers, Wheeler has allowed nine in 77 innings this season, accounting for more than one-third of his total earned runs allowed. Last year, he allowed 14 homers in 182 1/3 innings.

In his first major-league start, Diamondbacks righthander Jon Duplantier, 24, one of the club's top prospects, allowed three runs in five innings. He stumbled only in the second, when Frazier (RBI single) and Hechavarria (two-run double off the centerfield wall) accounted for the Mets' only runs against him.

Duplantier rebounded by retiring 12 of his next 14 batters to finish his outing.

Hechavarria's continued production _ especially of the extra-base variety _ runs contrary to his career norms but comes at an important time for the Mets. Filling in for Robinson Cano, who is out with a strained left quadriceps, Hechavarria is up to three homers and 12 RBIs in 44 plate appearances. Cano, who has struggled to hit when healthy, is at three homers and 13 RBIs in 181 plate appearances.

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