Mets' loss makes day more somber

THE 11-YEAR-OLD boy was wearing blue-and-orange sneakers, a set of high-tops that shared a color pattern with his baseball team. In a few hours, he would find a seat in the stadium and watch his favorite player - R.A. Dickey - chase his 19th win.

This has become a tradition for Michelle Pegno and her 11-year-old son, Matthew Lunden. Eleven years ago, on a blue-sky morning that resembled the one at Citi Field on Tuesday, Michelle lost her husband. Matthew lost his father.

To commemorate the anniversary of 9/11 - or maybe to take a coffee break from it - they went to a Mets game.

"I think it will cheer up everybody who's here," Lunden said. "It's a very sad day in American history."

For one evening, Dickey's pursuit of a 20-win season and a Cy Young Award offered a distraction. He tossed seven innings of three-run ball, but was unable to wrap his paws around win No. 19. His Mets lost, 5-3, to the Washington Nationals in front of 22,596 at Citi Field.

Dickey remains two wins shy of 20. If things go as expected, he will get four more chances to net two more wins. If the story line belonged to Dickey, the backdrop belonged to the heroes of Sept. 11. Even before the first pitch, the night was draped in tributes.

The Mets distributed approximately 300 tickets to Tuesday's Children, a charity that supports kids whose parents died on Sept. 11. Juliette Candela, a Glen Ridge, N.J., a woman who lost her father, loaned her voice to the national anthem. Regina Wilson, a New York City firefighter, did the same with "God Bless America."

Players wore first-responder hats during batting practice and warm-ups before returning to their traditional blue caps for the game.

Once the game started, the Mets returned to business as usual. And that meant coughing up an early lead.

A 2-1 lead was obliterated with one sixth-inning swing. After catcher Kurt Suzuki singled, pinch-hitter Tyler Moore crushed a home run over the left-field wall. Dickey could only watch as the lead - and his shot to move within one victory of 20 - evaporated.

* At Cincinnati, Mike Leake (8-9) pitched seven innings, had a pair of hits and scored on a dash home off a wild pitch, leading the Reds to a 5-3 victory over the fading Pittsburgh Pirates.

The Pirates have lost five in a row and 22 out of 31, falling out of contention in the NL Central.

The Reds will get by the next few days without closer Aroldis Chapman, who has a tired pitching shoulder. He walked three of the five batters he faced on Monday night, when his velocity was down from 100 mph to the mid-90s.

Before the game, the Reds' Brandon Phillips and Pirates reliever Jared Hughes to ease hard feelings. Hughes hit Phillips with a pitch on Monday night, and Phillips got the ball and flipped it at the mound. Phillips thought he heard the reliever make a derogatory comment. On Tuesday, Phillips said they talked and cleared up "a big misunderstanding."

* At Milwaukee, Marco Estrada pitched shutout ball into the seventh inning, Rickie Weeks and Aramis Ramirez homered and the Brewers beat the Atlanta Braves, 5-0. The Brewers won their eighth in a row at Miller Park and reached the .500 mark for the first time since April 24. Milwaukee has surged back into the NL wild-card race by winning 17 of 22 overall.

* At Houston, in a game that featured six errors, the Astros plated the only run - an unearned run in the sixth inning - on a sacrifice fly by Justin Maxwell and six pitchers combined on a six-hitter to beat the Chicago Cubs, 1-0.