Carlos Beltran drove in five with a home run, double and single and the New York Mets scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the ninth to beat the visiting San Diego Padres 8-7 on Tuesday night.
Beltran hit his 25th home run of the year in the bottom of the first inning off Padres starter Chris Young to give the Mets a 2-0 lead. The centerfielder then doubled in the third, driving in another two runs and pushing the Mets lead to 4-1.
San Diego cut the New York lead to 4-3 in the sixth inning when Mike Cameron hit his 16th home run of the year and Marcus Giles tripled in Josh Bard. The Padres then took the lead in the seventh when Cameron doubled home Adrian Gonzalez and then came around to score on a Khalil Green single.
In the bottom of the eighth Beltran drove home Jose Reyes with a single off Padres reliever Heath Bell for his fifth RBI of the game.
Billy Wagner came on in the ninth to hold the Padres but gave up a sacrifice fly to Kevin Kouzmanoff and the Padres grabbed a 7-6 lead heading into the bottom of the ninth. With Trevor Hoffman on the hill it looked like the game was a lock but the Mets rallied of the games all-time saves leader and tied the game on a Marlon Anderson RBI single. Anderson then came around to win the game after Luis Castillo singled off Hoffman.
Wagner improved to 2-1 while Hoffman suffered his fourth blown save of the season and fell to 2-4 on the year.