Wright ties career-best mark for reaching base

NEW YORK -- When David Wright unloaded on a sixth-inning offering from the Cubs' Scott Feldman on Saturday, he thought he had tied the game, and set a new career best.

His fly ball to the warning track with the Mets trailing the Cubs by one came within inches of knotting the game and giving him a streak of 10 consecutive plate appearances reaching base.

"I hit it pretty good," Wright said. "I don't know what the wind does here, a lot of times it's just swirling. But I thought I got enough of it, as I thought I did [on my] first [hit] off the right-center wall.

The earlier hit, his fourth-inning RBI double, tied a career best of nine straight plate appearances reaching base. But, his sixth-inning drive fell short, and his self-described "bad at-bat" in the eighth inning left his team short in a 5-2 loss.

Wright's impressive run began in the fourth inning of Thursday's loss to the Cardinals. His two-out single to center gave New York its first hit of the game against Adam Wainwright. He added singles to left and right in the sixth and eighth innings, respectively, as the Mets' offense failed to muster a run.

"When I feel good I can hit the ball kind of where it's pitched -- and I feel like I was able to do that," Wright said.

The Mets' captain delivered three more singles on Friday -- all to center field -- and walked in the third inning to enter Saturday in the midst of a seven-plate-appearance streak.

The success was just as evident to Daniel Murphy as it was to anyone watching.

"He's getting hits," Murphy put it plainly -- but he understands what has let Wright keep his run going.

"He always looks like he's got more time at the plate," Murphy said. "All the offensive guys, when we go bat and [don't feel good], we don't feel like we have any time; when we feel good, we have all the time in the world."

Wright really started to drive the ball on Saturday, too. The third baseman walked in the first inning, then delivered his RBI double in the fourth -- his first extra-base hit during his mini-streak. In his last eight games, he's gone 16-for-33 (.545) with a pair of home runs and six RBIs.

While the Mets have struggled during Wright's tear, he won't press or try to do anything more than he needs to. On Saturday, though, it was the shortcomings -- the loss, the bad at-bat, and the big fly that fell just short -- that left the last impression.

"It's 800 feet of fly balls," Wright said, "and not much to show for it."