Braves hang on

NEW YORK --- After blowing a save chance about 19 hours earlier, Mike Gonzalez was determined.

"It happened last night. It wasn't going to happen again today," the Atlanta Braves reliever said. "We work too hard."

Gonzalez held on -- barely.

After allowing Jose Reyes' leadoff double in the 12th inning and Luis Castillo's sacrifice, Gonzalez struck out Carlos Beltran and froze Gary Sheffield with a called third strike, preserving an exhausting 8-7 win over the New York Mets on Wednesday.

"I'm glad that game is over," Atlanta manager Bobby Cox said. "I think both teams were out of pitchers, position players and just about everything else."

Fernando Tatis hit a fourth-inning grand slam on the second pitch from reliever Buddy Carlyle. Sheffield tied the score 7-all in the eighth with his second home run of the season and No. 501 of his career.

After wasting leads of 2-0, 4-2 and 7-6, Atlanta went ahead for good when Martin Prado homered off Ken Takahashi (0-1) with one out in the 12th.

Reyes had three doubles but again cost the Mets with foolish baserunning. A day after he was thrown out at third trying to stretch a two-run double that pulled the Mets within a run in the eighth, Reyes was out trying to cross to third on a grounder to shortstop with the score tied and one out in the seventh.

Before a crowd of 40,555, the largest at Citi Field since the April 13 opener, the Mets lost for just the second time on an eight-game homestand before heading out on a 10-game trip to San Francisco, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Boston.