"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."