Wright breaks tie, leads Mets past Nationals in 10th

WASHINGTON -- While David Wright continues to search for his power stroke, he's still finding ways to contribute offensively.

Wright's two-run double, his fourth hit of the night, broke a 10th-inning tie and the New York Mets beat the Washington Nationals 3-1 on Friday night to snap a three-game losing streak.

"I'm concentrating on trying to get hits," said Wright, who has homered three times after hitting a career-high 33 a year ago. "I don't consider myself necessarily a home run hitter, so if I go gap-to-gap, if I get my doubles, if I drive my runs in, I'm satisfied with that."

Luis Castillo led off the 10th with a single off Joel Hanrahan (0-3), rolling an 0-2 slider into right field before Carlos Beltran walked. Wright then lined a 2-2 fastball into the gap in right-center to score both runners and match his single-game high for hits.

Wright leads the Mets with 20 multi-hit games and has 27 RBIs in 34 games.

Nationals manager Manny Acta wasn't pleased with Hanrahan's pitch selection and wondered why the right-hander didn't place more trust in his fastball.

"[Hanrahan] continued to have so much more confidence in that slider than that 95 mph fastball," Acta said. "Perhaps he doesn't have as much confidence as we have in it."

Hanrahan responded by insisting that he threw enough fastballs to keep the Mets honest.

"I was trying to get a strikeout [against Castillo] and that's kind of been my strikeout pitch," Hanrahan said. "It was a situation where I probably could have thrown him a fastball and he could have put the ball in play, because he doesn't strike out a lot. I just tried to throw one in the dirt there, and it didn't get quite to where it needed to be."

Sean Green (1-2) worked a perfect ninth for the victory and Francisco Rodriguez improved to 15 for 15 in save opportunities with a scoreless 10th.

New York prevailed despite being thrown out three times at third base. Beltran was nabbed at third trying to stretch a double into a triple to end the first. Wright was thrown out for the second out of the sixth trying to advance from first on Washington starter Shairon Martis' wild pickoff throw. And, Wright was gunned out trying to steal after his double.

"We can't afford to make mistakes or bad decisions," Mets manager Jerry Manuel said. "It's unfortunate in a sense that those are not good decisions. They have to make better decisions in order for everyone else to follow."

Washington has dropped nine of 10, and fell to 0-7 in extra innings.

The Mets took a 1-0 lead in the second when Wright led off with a double to short left field, moved to third on Daniel Murphy's flyout and scored on Fernando Tatis' grounder to short.

New York missed an opportunity to add to its lead in the fifth, when Fernando Martinez drew a leadoff walk and advanced to third when left fielder Adam Dunn misplayed Brian Schneider's sinking liner into a double, losing it in the lights. But Martis got Mets starting pitcher Tim Redding and Alex Cora to ground out with the runners holding before Castillo flied out to Dunn to end the threat.

The Nationals tied it in the fifth when Josh Bard doubled and scored on pinch-hitter Alberto Gonzalez's single to right-center.

Martis worked five innings, allowing a run on three hits. He walked four and struck out one.

Redding gave up a run on four hits in six innings, walking two and striking out two.

Game notes
Martis is 0-1 in four starts since his last victory May 14 at San Francisco. ... The first three innings were played in a swirling mist, and the game was twice delayed so the grounds crew could spread drying compound on the infield, pitcher's mound and batter's boxes. ... Before the game, the Mets placed RHP J.J. Putz on the 15-day disabled list and purchased the contract of RHP Fernando Nieve from Triple-A Buffalo. Putz will undergo surgery on his right elbow Tuesday to remove a bone spur. New York also claimed LHP Pat Misch off waivers from San Francisco and assigned him to Buffalo. To make room for Misch on the 40-man roster, the Mets moved LHP Billy Wagner to the 60-day disabled list.