What if I had said to you in May that by the end of July Carlos Delgadowould have hit more homeruns than ARod?  You would have told me I was crazy, right?  Well guess what?  As of the end of play on Tuesday, Carlos Delgado has hit 23 homeruns, Alex Rodriguez has 21.  And while that isn’t a huge difference, it puts into perspective just what Delgado has done to turn things around after a dreadful start. 

The Mets opened the game with three straight doubles, however, Jose Reyes was thrown out at third for trying to stretch his double into a triple.  Nick Evans then doubled to left and would score on a double by David Wright.  The amazing thing was that all three of those doubles were virtually in the same spot, hitting off the scoreboard in left field. The Mets took an early 1-0 lead, but Perez gave it back in the bottom of the inning.  In the sixth inning, Nick Evans singled and would come around to score on a single by Carlos Beltran.  Carlos Delgado added two insurance runs in the top of the eighth when he hit his 23 homerun of the season, the Mets would win 4-1.  

Oliver Perez earned his first victory since the end of June.  He worked six innings, allowing just one run on five hits, he walked three and struck out five.  Ollie has really come around since he started working with Dan Warthen.  Last night he was probably not as good as we’ve seen him recently, but instead of completely falling apart, he kept it together and ended up pitching pretty well. 

Aaron Heilman came in and worked two scoreless innings in relief.  It looked a little scary at first when he walked two batters in the seventh, but Heilman hung in there and pitched two innings, allowing just one hit, and no runs.  Once he got past the walks he made some great pitches striking out four.  It would be great if we could get the “setup” Heilman back, he was so good in the role last year and the Mets could really use a go-to eighth inning guy.  Billy Wagner retired the side in order to close out the game and earned his 27th save of the season.  After the meltdown by the pen on Monday night, the bullpen needed to come out and shut the Marlins down.  Clearly, the Mets really need to get their pen woes in order.  The race for the NL East appears as if it is going to go down to the wire, and the Mets really need to get everyone playing their best baseball because three teams are battling for the top spot. 

John Maine got the resutls of his MRI, the Mets are saying that he has a mild strain of the right rotator cuff.  He is likely to miss at least one start, but because of the off day, the Mets will not have to call up a spot starter.  Pedro Martinez will pitch on Friday.  Obviously it will be an emotional start for Pedro with everything that he has been through recently.  Ryan Church took batting practice for a second straight day and said that he felt good afteward, based on how he is in the next few days the Mets will sent a time frame for his return to the lineup, I know Jerry Manual has said he’d like Chruch to have a few rehab starts before returning to the lineup. 

Starters for Wednesday  Mike Pelfrey 9-6 with a 3.67 era and Josh Johnson with a 3.71 era .  Game time is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. 

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