Mike Aviles and Asdrubal Cabrera hit back-to-back singles in the seventh, then Lester allowed the go-ahead runwith a wild pitch to Mark Reynolds that skipped past catcher David Ross.
But whereas before the 1996 European championships Gazza's off-field antics had been interspersed with brilliant displays on thepitch, in the run-up to this year's World Cup he has seemed slow and struggling.
Then Brandon Lyon's breaking ball skipped off Recker's glove for a wild pitch, which allowed Juan Pierre to score the winning run standing up with none out.
He had just given up a broken-bat single to Brett Gardner and thrown a wild pitch to Robinson Cano, moving the potential tying run to second base with two outs in the ninth inning.