SAN FRANCISCO – Who needs a full roster?
Certainly not the short-handed Mets, who got this most grueling of road trips off to a rousing start here last night with a 7-4 win over the Giants at chilly AT&T Park.
No Jose Reyes, Carlos Delgado or J.J. Putz? No problem for the resilient Amazin’s, who overcame an eighth-inning meltdown by rookie reliever Bobby Parnell to claim their 10th win in 13 games.
After Parnell came apart in the eighth to give away a 4-2 lead and rob John Maine of a hard-earned win, David Wright’s RBI single in the ninth put the Mets back in front for good.
Wright’s clutch hit capped a huge night for the All-Star third baseman, who had three hits, two RBIs and a career-high four steals among the Mets’ franchise-record seven swipes.
“We’ve got to pick up the slack, the guys that are in there,” Wright said. “When some of those everyday guys go down, we’ve got to step it up, focus our game and pick up the slack.”
Wright’s display of running prowess was just part of a base-stealing frenzy by the Mets, who padded their NL lead in that department.
He became the first Met since Roger Cedeno 10 years ago to steal four bases in a game.
“Jerry [Manuel] has preached aggressiveness on the basepaths all year, and I got a few opportunities early,” said Wright, who tied the team mark for steals by one player. “I like putting pressure on the defense and I like to keep the pitcher on his toes.”
Carlos Beltran got the Mets started in the ninth against Giants closer Brian Wilson with a one-out double, then stole third base to set up Wright’s go-ahead single the opposite way to right.
“It’s nice to see that type of fight in our guys late, especially against a pretty good pitcher,” Manuel said of his first-place club. “We have the confidence that the game is never over.”
The ninth-inning uprising came immediately after Parnell appeared to put the Mets on track for a crushing loss by giving up two runs on three hits and a walk in place of the unavailable Putz (bone spur, elbow).
Parnell’s woes, which were unexpected considering he had allowed just one earned run in his past 13 1/3 innings coming in, also took away what would have been a hard-earned win by Maine.
Maine appears to have put his struggles in early April firmly behind him as he threw 6 2/3 innings of two-run ball. The right-hander, who tossed a season-high 118 pitches, has now allowed just six earned runs in his past 24 2/3 innings.
Maine wasn’t pretty, giving up seven hits and four walks, but he got the job done on a night Manuel and his injury-ravaged lineup badly needed it.
With Wright coming up big and Maine also notching his first two hits of the season as well as the first two-hit game of his big-league career, the Mets opened this 10-game trip to San Francisco, Los Angeles and Boston on the right note.
Wright is now batting .452 (14-for-31) over his past eight games. In other words, consider his slump over.
The same could also be said for Maine, who appears to have found his groove after a mostly miserable April that saw the Mets lose each of his first three starts while he was running up a 7.47 ERA.
Maine has whittled that ERA down to 4.24 since his rejuvenation began April 27 with a win over Florida at Citi Field. Even better for the Mets, all four wins in Maine’s hot stretch have been quality starts.
Maine’s night couldn’t have started much uglier, as he gave up two runs in the first inning, but he promptly went into shutdown mode by retiring 12 of the next 15 batters he faced.
“It’s getting better and better,” Maine said. “I’m just feeling more and more confident, and it’s a nice feeling.”
bhubbuch@nypost.com
