Mets want hit in 1st changed to error

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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- New York Mets knuckleballer R.A. Dickey now owns the longest streak of scoreless innings in franchise history.

The commissioner's office will decide whether he also owns the second no-hitter in franchise history.

Dickey surrendered only one hit in the Mets' 9-1 win against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field on Wednesday night.

It came on what was scored a two-out infield single in the first inning by B.J. Upton, a ball which third baseman David Wright was unable to field cleanly with his bare hand.

Mets manager Terry Collins said assistant general manager John Ricco has filed a formal request to have the official scorer's ruling changed. Collins expects a verdict Friday -- and not a favorable one.

"You've got a guy who can really run and an outstanding third baseman," Collins said. "The only way he can make the play is to barehand it. And he knows that. And he can't make it.

"David Wright knows what he's doing. If he thinks he's got to use his hand, then he's got to barehand it. We're just taking a shot. We're just taking a stab. What the heck?"

Joe Torre, who is charged with reviewing official scorer decisions unilaterally or referring it to a committee, said he will seek opinions from other people, including former St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa.

"Even though I make these decisions on scoring on a daily basis, obviously what's at stake here, I just want to make sure we give the decision every opportunity to get more than my opinion," said Torre, MLB's executive vice president for Baseball Operations."I have an opinion from what I've seen."

Torre said he would like to see more replay angles. He added that reaching a decision before the weekend is "reasonable."

"My guess is we should be able to get a varied number of people to look at this and come up with a decision," Torre said.

Asked if a 5 percent chance existed that the play was changed to an error on Wright, which would give Dickey a no-hitter, Collins said the odds would be less. Dickey agreed, calling it a "Hail Mary."

"What have we got to lose? Nothing," Collins said. "We won the game. R.A. pitched a great game. You owe it to yourself. If he catches it with the bare hand, if he makes the play, I don't know if he's out or not. But I know one thing -- he's really good at doing it."

An MLB committee can reverse an official scorer's decision. A reversal would give the Mets -- who had gone 8,019 games in franchise history without a no-hitter until Johan Santana performed the feat June 1 -- their second this month.

"I tried to make the play. I didn't make it," Wright said. "It's as simple as that. I don't think I could have got him with the glove. I tried to barehand it. It hit the lip and skipped on me. I didn't make the play. If they want to go back and give me an error, they can do that. I guess there's a handful of guys on that team you would have to barehand it and rush it. I wish it would have been somebody a little bit slower, where I could have taken my time and gloved it."

Wright dryly added: "It's the first inning. Had I known that it was going to be a one-hitter, I would have tried a little harder or something."

Dickey now owns the franchise record for consecutive scoreless innings with 32 2/3 after not allowing a run until the ninth Wednesday night. He passed the 31 2/3-innings streak by Jerry Koosman in 1973.

"A Hail Mary is a good analogy," Dickey said about a successful appeal of the ruling. "I don't know. It's up to them. I mean, B.J.'s quick. I've seen David make that play a lot of times with his bare hand. You give him 10 times, he's going to make it eight. It just kicked off his palm a little bit."

According to the Society of American Baseball Research, the lone no-hitter created after the fact was thrown by Ernie Koob of the St. Louis Browns against the Chicago White Sox on May 5, 1917.

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Adam Rubin

ESPNNewYork.com

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Adam Rubin has covered the Mets since 2003. He's a graduate of Mepham High School on Long Island and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He joined ESPNNewYork after spending 10 years at the New York Daily News.
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