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A Long Day's Journey Into Later In The Day

I'll give a very gentle fistbump to Fernando Tatis (so not to ding him up any more), as well as Ryan Church and Brian Stokes for Mets extra-inning road win #181 (including postseason). Remember that fistbumps are awarded for all last at-bat wins this season, and are logged in the right-hand margin of this blog.

* It was the 2nd road extra-inning win this season, the other coming on June 5 against the Nationals.

* It was the Mets 20th extra-inning road win in Pittsburgh. It was their first extra-inning road win in Pittsburgh since an 8-7 win on September 18, 2004.

* The only other Mets road extra-inning win to take place on a July 2 took place in 1969. The Mets beat the Cardinals in St. Louis, 6-4, in 14 innings.

* The Mets have had four walk-off losses on July 2, so they were walking a rather dangerous line late this afternoon.

* The Mets had a player get hit by multiple pitches for the 24th time (Damion Easley had it happen twice last season). Fernando Tatis tied a club record with the pair of plunks.

* The only other Met to be plunked twice in a game by a Pirate: Major fistbumps if you knew the answer was Carlos Mendoza, 1997. Mendoza's Mets career lasted 12 at-bats.

* Tatis also had 3 hits. That's the most hits by a Met, who was also hit by 2 pitches in the same game.

* Tatis's newspaper box score line will read 4-4-3-2 (AB-R-H-RBI). He's only the third player in Mets history to post a 4-4-3-2. The others are Derek Bell (2000) and Darryl Strawberry (1988).

* Not quite as rare: The 6-2-3-2 newspaper line. Ryan Church becomes the 8th Met with a 6-2-3-2, the first since Joe McEwing in 2001. The Mets are 8-0 when they have a player with a 6-2-3-2 newspaper line.

The truly wet Mets fan knows...Francisco Rodriguez matched a career-high (regular season/postseason) by throwing 46 pitches. The Mets have had a lot of relievers earn wins by throwing that many pitches, but the last to do so whom you could call the closer was Randy Myers. In a 3-2 win over the Giants on May 19, 1989, Myers threw 51 pitches in relief.

The only other time Rodriguez threw as many as 46 pitches in a game was in Game 6 of the 2002 World Series when he allowed 2 runs in 2 2/3 innings.

Coincidentally, just as the Mets came back from 5 down to win this game, the Angels came back from 5 down to win that one, 6-5, and force Game 7 against the Giants.

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