Homering at Home, Wright Powers the Mets

David Wright certainly hit the baseball hard enough in his third at-bat Sunday, but he was sure it would curve foul. Wright, the Mets’ third baseman, has become the foremost expert on how many home runs Citi Field takes away, on how no one can start a home run trot early.

Somehow, this fly ball stayed straight as an arrow, and it dropped over the railing just inside the left-field foul pole for his second home run of the game.

“I don’t think you’re going to beat the park psychologically,” said Wright, who hit only 17 of his 39 home runs the last two years at Citi Field. “If you put a good swing on it, some days it’s going to go out of the park, and some days it’s not.”

Sunday was a glorious day, 75 degrees and sunny at first pitch, and Wright made it clear that it was going to be a good day for aerodynamics. He pummeled a two-run homer off Armando Galarraga in the first inning, then added a 340-foot shot in the fourth. Wright had his 16th multihomer game, tying Carlos Beltran and Dave Kingman for third on the Mets’ career list. (Mike Piazza had 17 such games, and Darryl Strawberry had 22.)

But that was of less significance to Wright, who snapped a career-worst 0-for-20 slide Thursday.

“I think he has come out of it,” Manager Terry Collins said of Wright, who has gone 6 for 14 with three home runs in the Mets’ last four games.

“Psychologically, he now knows he can hit the ball out of any part of this park.”

Wright helped make the day easier for Mets starter Jon Niese, who pitched seven effective innings for his first victory of the year. Niese, who was 0-3 with a 5.37 earned run average, allowed six hits and two earned runs Sunday. Collins said Dan Warthen, the Mets’ pitching coach, had worked with Niese on keeping a steady pace — not rushing his pitches. Niese struck out the first two batters he faced with pinpoint fastballs and did not scuffle until he gave up two hits in each of his last two innings.

“I think my fastball was good today,” Niese said. “My off-speed pitches need a little help, but I think my off-speed pitches helped with my fastball.”

The Mets gave Niese a lift by taking an 8-1 lead in the first four innings. Although Wright said starting pitching had been the key to the Mets’ latest success, the team has amassed 27 runs and 38 hits in the last four games. Jason Pridie, a 27-year-old center fielder recalled from Class AAA Buffalo on Friday to replace the injured Angel Pagan, walloped a three-run homer off Galarraga into the Mets’ bullpen in a four-run third inning. It was Pridie’s first big-league home run, after 137 at-bats.

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