First baseman Conor Jackson's was terrible; rightfielder Ryan Church's terrific.

Jackson's ninth-inning throwing error allowed Carlos Beltran to score the Mets' go-ahead run from second.

"The ball just got away from me," said Jackson, praised by Arizona manager Bob Melvin for his improved defensive play this year. "I made a bad throw."

Moments earlier, in the eighth, Chris Burke laid down a bunt and Mets pitcher Pedro Feliciano threw wildly past first base. Burke raced to second, then was waved to third by third-base coach Chip Hale.

Meanwhile, Church chased down the ball and threw perfectly to third, where David Wright tagged out Burke.

"The biggest thing was just getting the grip of it and letting it go, basically chuck it," Church said. "David did a great job of deking the runner a little bit, just grabbed it and snapped tag."

Melvin defended Hale's decision.

"Sometimes there's judgment involved and it just didn't work out," Melvin said.

Burke obviously wished he would have stayed at second.

"It was fortunate and unfortunate all in one play," he said, "just a frustrating play for the team because it could have set us up to take the lead, and then you never know what happens from there."

The Mets won at Arizona for the 15th time in 17 tries and handed the Diamondbacks' just their second series loss of the season.

Wright had a solo homer for the Mets.

With the score tied 2-2 in the ninth, Beltran and Moises Alou singled off reliever Chad Qualls. Carlos Delgado grounded to Jackson, who overthrew shortstop Augie Ojeda to allow Beltran to score.

"Anytime a team makes mistakes on you, you make sure you make them pay for it," New York manager Willie Randolph said. "It was kind of a weird game. A few crazy things happened out there, but we scored early and late and got the job done."

New York went on to load the bases and get an RBI single by pinch-hitter Marlon Anderson and an sacrifice fly by Jose Reyes.

Qualls (0-2) gave up three runs, one earned, in one inning. Jorge Sosa (4-1) pitched two-thirds of an inning to get the victory. Billy Wagner threw a perfect ninth for his seventh save in eight tries.

In other games:

* At Houston, Hunter Pence hit a two-run homer in the 12th, leading the Astros to an 8-6 win over Milwaukee. Houston earned its third straight win and trailed by as many as four runs before rallying.

* At Miami, Greg Maddux (2-3) failed in his fourth bid to reach 350 victories when he was outpitched by young Andrew Miller in San Diego's 10-3 loss to Florida. Maddux twice failed to hold a lead, and he allowed 11 hits and five runs, four earned, in 5 2/3 innings.

* At St. Louis, Albert Pujols reached base for the 32nd consecutive game, one shy of his personal best to start the year, with a key two-run double in the fourth inning in the Cardinals' 5-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs.

* At Washington, Tim Redding (4-2) allowed one run over 6 1/3 innings, Aaron Boone homered and the Nationals beat Pittsburgh, 5-2. Pittsburgh starter Ian Snell (2-2) took the loss.

* At Atlanta, Chipper Jones drove in five runs and the Braves scored seven runs in the second inning to beat Cincinnati, 14-7, and complete a three-game sweep. Jones hit his ninth homer - a three-run shot off Bronson Arroyo (1-4) in the seven-run second.

* At Denver, Aaron Cook (5-1) gave Colorado the strong outing it needed, Matt Holliday had two hits and two RBI and the Rockies beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-2, to end a four-game losing streak. Andre Ethier homered for the Dodgers, who had their eight-game winning streak snapped. Derek Lowe (2-2) took the loss. *