HOUSTON -- For extended moments, hardly New York minutes, those gathered around Carlos Beltran in center field held their collective breath on Saturday night, wondering what impact a chain-link outfield fence had had on his left knee and what impact an injury to their center fielder would have on the team's October aspirations.
Forty minutes later, those gathered around Beltran in the visiting clubhouse held their sides instead, laughing at his gallows humor. By then, it was clear Beltran had broken nothing -- neither a bone nor the promise of a Mets postseason. So he broke into a smile instead, as he recalled his more serious collision last summer with Mike Cameron in the outfield in San Diego.
"No, no. This is not that bad," Beltran said. "Then, I didn't know where I was. This time I knew where I was. When I heard the booing, I knew I was in Houston."
Although Beltran limped conspicuously as he moved around the clubhouse and as he left for additional examination of his wounded knee, he and others already sensed the injury wasn't nearly as serious as it might have been. Concern morphed into typical postgame give and take. And 75 minutes after manager Willie Randolph said, "He's all right," an X-ray of the knee proved negative. Diagnosis: bruised knee. Prognosis: day-to-day.
If anything, the Mets seemed more appalled by the booing directed at the former Astros outfielder as he was helped from the field in the ninth inning, and more struck by the brilliance of the catch Beltran had made as he crashed into the fence than they were about his injury.
"He walking, he's smiling. ... What a catch!" Billy Wagner said.
Obscured to some degree by the catch that saved it was the 4-2 Mets victory that Wagner less than spectacularly saved a few moments after Beltran's catch stole a hit away from former teammate Lance Berkman with two runners on base. The Mets hardly needed the win. The victory and the Phillies' doubleheader split had put them 16 1/2 games ahead of the pack in the National League East and put their magic number at 12.
Until Beltran's sprint, leap and catch for the second out of the ninth, the Mets' demeanor hardly suggested the slightest sense of desperation. But Beltran played the 26th out as if it carried greater significance.
"You play to win," he said. "We wanted to win the series, and now we have. I feel good about that."
No one found fault with his selflessness -- even if the overall risk exceeded the immediate reward.
"When you don't go all out," Randolph said, "that's when you do get hurt."
Which is not to say Beltran was unaffected by the collision. He said he felt little pain, but that the swelling above the knee made it impossible to bend or straighten the leg normally. An instant after he took an extra-base hit and two RBIs from Berkman, he knew he couldn't continue. He needed help to get to the dugout.
As he and trainer Ray Ramirez made their way slowly, an unforgiving minority within the crowd of 43,218 at Minute Maid Park actually jeered the former Astros center fielder.
"You can never understand fans," Beltran said.
Beltran had made a magnificent, leaping catch. Randolph likened it to a catch Ken Griffey Jr. made against the Yankees years ago. Griifrey broke his wrist on the play. The Mets were reminded of the catch Philliies center fielder Aaron Rowand made against ex-Met Xavier Nady in May. Roward broke a bone in his face.
Beltran broke the Astros' heart.
Berkman's ball could have tied the score. Instead, Wagner gained his 34th save, John Maine his fifth straight victory and the Mets their 12th in 14 games. The Astros had won six straight before two successive losses to the league's powerhouse team.
Wagner was the Mets' third reliever -- he followed Pedro Feliciano and Aaron Heilman. Maine had allowed two hits -- home runs by Berkman and Mike Lamb -- in his 6 1/3 innings.
Two RBIs by Cliff Floyd in his return from a disabled-list assignment and poor defense by the Astros were critical to the Mets' fourth victory in five games against the Astros. They were enough to offset the 11th and 12th home runs Maine allowed in 68 innings. Now, 21 of the 27 runs he has allowed this season have scored on home runs.
He has surrendered one to Ryan Howard, two to Albert Pujols and now one to Berkman.
"At least I'm givng them up to the right people," Maine said.
Two rather unbecoming errors by the Astros made two of the three runs the Mets scored against starter Jason Hirsh unearned.
A leadoff single by Paul Lo Duca and a single by Beltran put runners on first and second in the fourth. Lo Duca advanced to third on Carlos Delgado's warning-track fly ball to left and scored when Craig Biggio misplayed David Wright's ground ball 10 feet from second base. A sacrifice fly by Floyd in his second plate appearance since Aug. 4 scored Beltran with his league-high 112th run.
Berkman led off the fifth with his 37th home run, but the Mets came back in the sixth. Hirsh simply mishandled a routine flip from Berkman on what would have been the third out of the inning. A single by Delgado advanced Beltran to third base. With Wright batting, the Astros rookie threw a wild pitch allowing Beltran to score.
Lamb hit his 11th home run, leading off the seventh. When Berkman followed with a fly ball that Beltran caught on the warning track in center, Randolph removed Maine in favor of Feliciano. Heilman pitched the eighth. Floyd drove in Wright with a double in the ninth, a run that loomed even larger as Beltran began his hurried pursuit of Berkman's menacing fly ball.
"It was a pretty good catch," he would say later. "I'm glad I made it. I'm glad I tried. You have to try."
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