Kathy Willens, Associated Press photos Manager Jim Tracy argues a call at the plate with home plate umpire Angel Hernandez yesterday in the eighth inning. Click photo for larger image. More Coverage: Pirates Notebook: Duke dinked relentlessly in long inning Smizik: Pirates' lack of effort is baseball sin Game Statistics Provided by Forecaster Pirates vs. Mets box score Game play-by-play

NEW YORK -- Salomon Torres already had one heated exchange with home plate umpire Angel Hernandez.

Turned out he was only warming up the flamethrower.

"It's a shame," Torres fumed after the Pirates' 7-6 loss to the New York Mets yesterday at Shea Stadium. "You do your best, and the game gets decided by the way the umpire acted. It's heartbreaking when a game like this goes either way when somebody, out of anger or malice or whatever, does what he did."

He wagged his finger.

"The umpire has the power, and he abused it."

Such was the emotion in the Pirates' clubhouse after Hernandez ruled Endy Chavez safe on a play at the plate to give New York the winning run in the eighth inning.

Even manager Jim Tracy, hardly one to blow his top, did so. Literally. He thrust his cap into the ground while arguing with Hernandez, drawing only his second ejection of the season.

Afterward, Tracy would tell reporters in his office, "He looked very out to me when I saw the play. But since coming in here, I saw the replay ... and he looks even more out."

The Pirates had built up a 6-4 lead on the strength of 5 1/3 serviceable innings from Zach Duke and a sixth consecutive offensive output of a half-dozen or more runs, first time for that since Sept. 2-8, 2000.

Torres pitched a scoreless seventh inning and retired Carlos Beltran to open the eighth, but he walked Carlos Delgado and David Wright, prompting Tracy to pull him.

On his way off the mound, Torres barked at Hernandez, one of several conversations -- involving both teams -- that centered on the umpire's seemingly shifting strike zone. Tracy quickly got between them.

"I told him, 'You killed me!' " Torres said. "That's all I said."

It was enough to get Torres ejected, a moot point since he was leaving, anyway.

The Mets' Endy Chavez is ruled safe ahead of Ronny Paulino's tag, scoring the go-ahead run in the eighth inning. Click photo for larger image.

More would follow.

Roberto Hernandez relieved and promptly gave up Chavez's RBI double a foot inside the left-field line. New York was within 6-5.

With men at second and third, Xavier Nady sizzled a single past first baseman Sean Casey. Nate McLouth smoothly scooped it up in right field and fired toward the plate. The tying run already had crossed, and Chavez was sprinting home, too.

McLouth's throw was a strike to catcher Ronny Paulino, and it arrived before Chavez had entered the batter's box. Paulino, with his left foot blocking the plate, whirled and tagged Chavez on the left shin. The question was: Did Chavez's foot touch the back of the plate before the tag?

Angel Hernandez, in good position, made an emphatic safe call.

Tracy dashed from the dugout, stepped in front of a furious Paulino, and he and the umpire went at it for about two more minutes, drawing loud boos from the 38,487 on hand.

"I don't see how there was any way the runner was able to get his foot in, to try to go all the way around the catcher," Tracy said later.

There was a pause.

"He called him safe."

Paulino laughed and shook his head when asked about it.

"Did you see the play?" he said. "It wasn't even close. Perfect throw. I had the ball before he was even near me. I put the tag down. Not close."

Roberto Hernandez, backing up on the play, had a good view, too.

"The ball beat Chavez by a lot," he said. "All Ronny did was drop the glove on him, plain and simple. It wasn't like it was a bang-bang play. Ronny was waiting on him."

Torres came close to accusing Angel Hernandez of exacting revenge upon the Pirates for the conversation the two had earlier in the inning.

"Chavez was out, and the umpire knows that better than anyone. He was 8 or 10 feet away," Torres said. "Maybe he just had an attitude or something. He has a reputation for minor things getting to him, and maybe he finds a way to make us pay. That is not fair."

Reliever Salomon Torres argues with home plate umpire Angel Hernandez in the eighth inning. Click photo for larger image.

Torres said Major League Baseball should look into Hernandez's behavior.

"Where's the league when you need somebody to do something about this? They need to reprimand this guy."

Roberto Hernandez had another theory: "When you're 29-56 or whatever, the benefit of the doubt is not going to be swinging on your side."

New York manager Willie Randolph was somewhat noncommittal on the play.

"I think he got underneath the tag, but I haven't seen replays," Randolph said. "It's important for an ump to stay with the play. He was right on top of it."

Whatever the case, the Pirates also found someone else to blame for their mind-bending 25th one-run loss:

"It's on us, too," Torres said. "There's no excuses for that. We should have done better."

Tracy cited those two walks by Torres as critical.

"It's a tough game to lose, obviously, but I think we helped the situation along," Tracy said. "The bases on balls hurt. The last thing you want to see is us setting the stage for them."

"They were dead in the water, and we didn't finish the job," Roberto Hernandez said. "I certainly didn't do mine. But you know what? We've been battling the whole time, and we know by now we've got to make our own breaks."