Yankees’ Power Trip Doesn’t Affect the Mets

NEW YORK — As the 0-2 pitch whizzed by him with two outs in the ninth, Matt Franco panicked.

“My heart stopped a bit,” the Met pinch-hitter said. “It was close. I’ve taken that pitch and been rung up before, no doubt about it.”

Then plate umpire Jeff Kellogg called it a ball.

Still alive.

On Mariano Rivera’s next pitch, Franco hit a two-run single and the Mets rallied and overcame six home runs to beat the cross-town Yankees, 9-8, Saturday at Shea Stadium.

“To say this is another win is not true,” Franco said. “Everybody knows this is not another three-game series before the All-Star break.”

The Yankees had won 124 consecutive games when they led entering the ninth.

“Ninety-nine percent of the time, we have a lead in the ninth, we win. It just didn’t happen,” said Derek Jeter, who went 0 for four in his first game as a cleanup hitter.

Mike Piazza hit a big three-run homer for the second game in a row, a 482-foot rocket off Ramiro Mendoza in the seventh that landed behind the left-field bullpen and put the Mets ahead, 7-6.

But Jorge Posada’s second homer, a two-run shot off Dennis Cook, gave the Yankees an 8-7 lead in the eighth.

“It was just like a heavyweight fight,” Met Manager Bobby Valentine said. “Last guy standing wins.”

Rickey Henderson, who went three for three, drew his second walk with one out in the ninth.

Edgardo Alfonzo followed with a high fly that appeared to glance off the glove of a leaping Bernie Williams in left-center. Playing in an unfamiliar ballpark, Williams seemed unsure of where the fence was, and the ball fell for a double that sent Henderson to third.

“I couldn’t feel the wall and tried to get there as soon as I could,” Williams said. “I’m pretty frustrated right now. It was an emotional game.”

John Olerud grounded out and Piazza, whose tiebreaking homer gave the Mets a 5-2 win Friday night, was intentionally walked. Franco then hit for Melvin Mora.

When Franco singled sharply to right, Henderson came home with the tying run and Alfonzo easily beat Paul O’Neill’s throw for the winning run.

Franco is 11 for 37 (.297) as a pinch-hitter this season with nine runs batted in.

“This is the biggest of my career so far--definitely,” Franco said.

The Mets ran out of the dugout and jumped on him as if they had won a postseason game.

“I don’t remember much after the hit, just getting swarmed by the guys,” Franco said.

Rivera (2-2) blew a save for the third time in 25 chances.

The Yankees hadn’t lost a game they led after eight innings since May 14, 1998, a 13-inning loss to Texas.

“We need this game. Kind of sad the way we lost it,” Rivera said. “I thought I had him.”

Pat Mahomes (3-0), the sixth Met pitcher, worked out of a jam with two runners in the ninth.

Since losing their opening two games against the Yankees last month and falling to 27-28, the Mets have gone 23-10, including three in a row over the Yankees.

The Mets won a three-game series against the Yankees for the first time in four tries.

In addition to Posada, O’Neill also hit two homers, and Ricky Ledee and Chuck Knoblauch had one each for the the Yankees, who hit six homers for the first time since 1990.