The streak that turned the game came in the ninth inning, when Carlos Beltran made a dash for third base, stealing with one out to set up a game-tying, two-strike sacrifice fly by Luis Castillo. It sent the Mets to extra innings, where they won the game, 4-3, in the 10th on a bases-loaded, two-out walk by Beltran.

The walk scored Jose Reyes, who had started the rally with a two-out, infield single and a stolen base, followed by an intentional walk to Alex Cora and a walk to pinch-hitter Ramon Castro ? all of the damage coming against Jeff Bennett. The streaker even slid into second ? something that the Mets have been criticized for failing to do with sliding shorts. And he made it without a throw, compared with Beltran?s head-first slide into third that might have been as lucky as it was daring. Replays seemed to show that the throw from Brian McCann beat him.

The call by third-base umpire Greg Gibson made up for many other baserunning foibles by the Mets .

Actually, the streaker might have had a better chance of escaping the crowd of security officers pursuing him than Reyes had of reaching third when he made another costly baserunning error.

With the Mets trailing, 3-0, in the eighth, Reyes launched a drive into the left-center gap, scoring two runs. He saw the chance for a triple all the way ? even if no one else did. Center fielder Jordan Schafer retrieved the ball and relayed to shortstop Yunel Escobar, whose throw to third beat Reyes? head-first slide by at least 10 feet. Chipper Jones straddled the bag, waiting patiently for Reyes to arrive, and slapped a tag on him.

So instead of having the fastest runner on the team on second with one out, the Mets emptied the bases with two, ending any chance of completing the comeback in the eighth.

Instead, Beltran continued to carry the offensive load, leading off the ninth with a double pulled into the left field corner. After David Wright popped out in foul territory, Beltran took off with Fernando Tatis at the plate. Tatis was then hit by a pitch by Mike Gonzalez, bringing up Castillo as a pinch-hitter. After falling behind, 1-2, Castillo hit a line drive deep enough to left for Beltran to score easily.

The comeback took Mike Pelfrey off the hook for what would have been his first loss. The performance, which might have been Pelfrey?s best of the season, at least proved that it isn?t just Johan Santana whom the Mets have been leaving to work on his own. Pelfrey had been a fortunate 4-0 entering Tuesday?s game, but got the same sort of offensive malaise and baserunning struggles that Santana has been presented.

And just as it was for Santana a day earlier, the Mets added miscues to the mix. A potential rally was quashed when Alex Cora was caught heading to second on a fly ball to left that fell in front of Garrett Anderson, costing Daniel Murphy a single. The savvy veteran rarely misreads or misjudges a play, but when the ball dropped, Cora was halfway and starting back toward first, just enough to cost him a chance to reach safely.

Of course, Beltran followed with what would have been an RBI single.

In the seventh, the Mets got a one-out triple from Wright. But the inning ended when Tatis followed with a fly ball to shallow center. With the Mets trailing, 2-0, Wright tagged up and tried for home, but was thrown out by Schafer.

Pelfrey gave up a run in the fourth inning, surrendering a one-out single to Jones and a fly ball that dropped safely into shallow center among three fielders.

E-mail: popper@northjersey.com