Francoeur's home run in ninth lifts Mets over Braves

ATLANTA - As saviors go, Jeff Francoeur is pretty far down the list for the Mets. If not for the concussion suffered by Jason Bay, Francoeur would be on the bench most nights. Or he might even have been wearing a Royals uniform last night rather than playing in front of a hometown crowd.

But with the Mets backed into a corner, their season spiraling downward, the Atlanta native made the most of his second chance as an everyday player again. With the score tied at 2, Francoeur stepped to the plate against Billy Wagner, the former Mets closer, and led off the ninth inning with a home run into the rightfield seats that delivered a 3-2 victory over the Braves.

Soon after Francoeur connected on the 0-and-1 fastball, a 96-mph pitch, the crowd exhaled in a collective groan. On the face of Francoeur, however, was an expression of pure joy as he rounded the bases.

"I was floating on air on that one," Francoeur said. "I'm not a guy that gets overly excited. But with all my friends and family that were here, and to do it against your old team. Part of that, too, is because of how bad I've been struggling. To have a night like that where at least for one night you feel excited and feel like you contributed was nice."

Francoeur entered Tuesday in a 1-for-21 slump, but drew a rare four-pitch walk from reliever Kyle Farnsworth leading off the seventh inning and scored the tying run on Chris Carter's pinch-hit single.

Shortly after Carlos Beltran's return, Francoeur essentially was benched in favor of Angel Pagan in rightfield. But his return to prominence Tuesday helped the Mets inch back over .500 (54-53) and trim their NL East deficit to 61/2 games behind the Braves.

"He's a big part of the chemistry and the energy of the team and he brings a lot of things," manager Jerry Manuel said. "But tonight he brought his bat, which is good."

Before the game, Manuel talked at length about how integrating Beltran and Luis Castillo back into the lineup has actually hurt the Mets by messing with a roster that got them to 11 games over .500 at one point. A few hours later, Francoeur - one of the biggest clubhouse leaders during the first half - backed up his manager's statements.

"Maybe this could be the beginning of something good for him," said R.A. Dickey, who allowed two runs in six innings. "We've kind of been in a rut and hadn't had much energy lately - it hasn't been what it once was. Maybe this could be a steppingstone toward getting it back."

Dickey had his streak of scoreless innings snapped at 18 when the Braves took a 1-0 lead in the second on Melky Cabrera's RBI groundout. When the rain began to fall shortly afterward, the night became very difficult for Dickey, who described the conditions as "straight guerrilla warfare" for a knuckleballer. "I used every trick I knew," he said.

The Braves took a 2-1 lead in the sixth, and they got some help when Francoeur took a bad route to Melky Cabrera's line drive into the right-centerfield gap. In trying to cut off the angle, Francoeur let it skip under his backhanded glove and the ball rolled to the wall, allowing Rick Ankiel to score from first.

But redemption was the theme of the night. Castillo, whose blown double-play relay cost the Mets two runs Monday, had a pair of hits and also scored the first run on Jose Reyes' double in the third inning. Later, the stage was set for Francoeur.

"This team needs me to step up here the next couple weeks and help us," Francoeur said. "David [Wright] and Angel can't carry us all season long. They've been carrying us lately, it's time for a couple of us step up and take a little pressure off them."