PITTSBURGH — The sellout crowd at PNC Park got a baseball game followed by Huey Lewis & the News last night. A rendition of “Stuck with You” might have been appropriate for Jason Bay’s return to the Mets lineup.
The beleaguered left fielder ended a hitless drought that had reached 24 at-bats, but was nowhere to be found when the Mets needed him most. Bay left three runners stranded over his final two at-bats in the Mets’ 3-2 loss to the Pirates in front of 39,273 — the third-largest crowd in the ballpark’s history.
“I felt like I had good at-bats, but when you’re not getting hits what does it even mean?” Bay said after finishing 1-for-4 with two strikeouts on a night the Mets left nine runners on base. “I wish I could [say] something else, but it’s the same story every day.”
Bay, playing his first game here since the Pirates traded him to the Red Sox in 2008, heard a mixture of cheers and boos upon his introductions. He hit a bloop single in the fourth inning to end his career-worst hitless drought, but struck out for the final out in the fifth with runners on second and third and the Mets trailing by a run. In the eighth, he flied out after Angel Pagan had walked to put the tying run on base.
The Mets (31-33) missed an opportunity to reach .500 for the second time in four days.
“On the point-figure charts, I think if we can get to that .500 figure we can climb the ladder,” said R.A. Dickey, who allowed three earned runs over eight innings to take loss.
Dickey (3-7) said he doesn’t put much stock in his won-loss record, but admitted he’s frustrated by those numbers.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever been 3-7 in anything, so obviously it’s painful,” Dickey said. “It’s necessary to grieve that, but I’ve got another good ballclub [Atlanta] in the division in five days, so I can’t grieve it too long.”
James McDonald contained the Mets over six innings, limiting them to two runs on eight hits and three walks. The right-hander was in trouble for most of his six innings, but walked the tightrope. His biggest outs came in the fourth, when he got Dickey to hit into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded.
The Pirates took a 3-1 lead in the third inning when Andrew McCutchen’s shot off third baseman Daniel Murphy’s glove was ruled a two-run double. Murphy said the play should have been ruled an error.
“I’m [ticked] because it’s a play I should have made,” Murphy said. “My ears told me it was off the end of the bat. I saw it coming and it felt like a changeup.”
The Mets had a chance to tie or take the lead in the eighth against Jose Veras after Lucas Duda’s double put runners on second and third with two outs, but Ronny Paulino was caught watching strike three. On Duda’s double, Pagan may have had an opportunity to score from first, but third-base coach Chip Hale flashed the stop sign, and Pagan obliged.
“I was going to go for it, I wanted to score from there,” Pagan said.
Manager Terry Collins wasn’t about to second-guess Hale’s decision.
“I’ve got a good third-base coach, I’m not going to critique him,” Collins said. “He’s as good as there is in this league — there is no question in my mind.”
mpuma@nypost.com