The Pirates frittered away an early five-run lead, fought back to tie it on an Adam LaRoche two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth, but Ryan Church's RBI single in the 10th gave the New York Mets a 9-8 victory today at PNC Park.

On Church's game-winner (a shot back up the middle) Pirates center fielder Andrew McCutchen came up throwing and tried to throw out Fernando Tatis who was attempting to score from second. But McCutchen's throw sailed high off the mark, well over home plate and Tatis scored easily.

The loss was the fourth in five games after the team had won four consecutive games from June 24-27.

The Pirates advanced to a 5-0 lead after three innings, scoring three times in the second and twice more in the third --- but then let it slip away just as quickly.

"Offensively, today, that's what we are looking for," Pirates manager John Russell said. "Unfortunately, we couldn't finish it off. ??? It would have been nice to win today, but there were a lot of positives that came out of this."

Catcher Robinzon Diaz had a single to center in the second, driving in left fielder Garrett Jones, who earlier had doubled off the Clemente Wall, to give the Pirates their first run.

Later in the second, Andy LaRoche came home when McCutchen was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded --- to make it 2-0 --- and Jack Wilson pushed Diaz home on a sacrifice fly.

The Pirates pushed their advantage to 5-0 an inning later when Jones' triple brought home Adam LaRoche and Diaz doubled, scoring Jones.

From there, the Mets scored two runs in the fourth and four in the fifth to grab a 6-5 lead.

Mets pinch hitter Daniel Murphy drove in two runs with a one-out single to right in the fourth, before New York constructed its four-run fifth playing station-to-station baseball wherein Gary Sheffield, Church and Nick Evans had RBI singles and Jeremy Reed had a sacrifice fly.

The Mets' offensive punch continued in the sixth, when Tatis hammered a two-run homer off Jeff Karstens to push his team's lead to 8-5.

Jones, who was recently called up from Indianapolis, rebounded nicely in his second start after going 0 for 4 on Wednesday. He went 3 for 5, missed the cycle by a single and hit a solo homer in the seventh to make it 8-6.

"That's what we knew Garrett could do," Russell said. "We knew he could supply some punch in our offense and he had a nice day today."

Pirates right fielder Delwyn Young was ejected in the seventh inning by home plate umpire Chad Fairchild after taking a called strike and protesting.

Pirates starting pitcher Paul Maholm yielded 11 hits and six earned runs in 4 1/3 innings and couldn't hold the lead despite being spotted a 5-0 advantage.

"We had a five-run lead and I gave it up," Maholm said. "On my part, that's pretty pathetic."