The Mets extended their win streak to 9 with a 7-0 win over the Rockies.  The Phillies won yesterday so the Mets knew going in to play last night that they would not be in first place at the all star break, but the Marlins lost and so the Mets take sole possession of second place.   

Mike Pelfrey was amazing last night.  I can’t believe it is the same guy.  For a second consecutive start he did not allow any walks.  He worked eight scoreless innings allowing just six hits and striking out five.  Pelfrey also got some help from his defense last night as the Rockies grounded into three double plays.   

The Mets took an early lead on a Carlos Beltran three run homer in the bottom of the first.  That was Beltran’s second three run homer in six games.  The Mets scored again the second inning on an RBI single by Jose Reyes.  In the fourth inning, Fernando Tatis and Ramon Castro got aboard with singles and would advance into scoring position by a Mike Pelfrey sac bunt, Tatis would score on a sac fly by Nick Evans.  In the bottom of the fifth, Carlos Delgado hit his 17^th homer of the season, a two run blast that almost hit the scoreboard in right center field.  

Carlos Delgado is in a good grove right now.  Given how he stared the season, I would not have thought that the Mets would have been able to get as much out of him as they have thus far.  Delgado now has his average up to .248.  In the month of July in his 49 at bats he is hitting .376 with 3 homers and 7 RBI. 

There has been a lot of talk about the Mets acquiring Raul Ibanez from the Seattle Mariners.  Ibanez is a 35 year old left fielder, whom I believe is in his last year of his contract with Seattle; because of this the Mets think they can get him for little in return.  Ibanez is a career .284 hitter and has spent his time American League having played for both the Mariners and the Royals.  This year in 95 games he is hitting .273 with 11 homeruns, 55 RBI and 1 stolen base.    

The Mets are close to having Angel Pagan back, he is currently completing his rehab stint with the Brooklyn Cyclones.  Ryan Church played catch and did some work in the cages at Shea yesterday, it is thought that he is making progress and if things stay that way he could begin a rehab assignment as early as this week.  Jerry Manual did say in his post game remarks that he would like to get Church some at bats (in a rehab start) before making a decision about his return to the Mets.  Church is eligible to return from the DL on July 21^st. 

One last note on injuries, Jerry Manual insisted that when Luis Castillo returns from the DL next week he will not have the starting second base job waiting for him.  Manual who has a penchant for staying with the hot hand says that he feels they are getting good production out of Argenis Reyes and Damion Easley.  According to the New York Post, when Manual was asked about the status of Castillo when he returns from the DL he replied, “When the time comes, we’ll make a decision on that and see how it fits…We’re really playing well at that position - I mean, very well. It’s going to be a tough one.” 

If anyone caught the futures game yesterday, they would have had a glimpse of what is to come for the Mets.  Fernando Martinez played great and created a lot of buzz.  He was 1-2 with a single in yesterday’s game.  This season Martinez is with Double A Binghamton and is hitting .294 with four homers and 21 RBIs in 52 games.  Martinez, who turns 20 in October, was the fourth youngest player in yesterday’s contest.  The comments about him were that he is a gifted athlete with a beautiful swing.  Martinez says he believe he will play with the Mets sometime this season.  I for one would love to see it!   

The Mets are playing so well that I hate that the all star break is here, you hate to break up a good thing.  The positive to this is that they open up in Cincinnati knowing that they really have a chance to be at the top of the division with the Marlins and Phillies playing each other.  More than ever after seeing what the Mets have done this far, that saying, that is why they play the games, comes to mind.  If you would have asked me two weeks ago, I was fairly certain that the Mets would finish either 3^rd or 4^th in the division with a record somewhere around .500.  But, after seeing what they have done these past few weeks we’ve finally seen the team we’ve been looking for since last year after the all star break.  I don’t know what will happen, but I do know there is a lot to look forward to in the second half!   

LET’S GO METS! 

Mets Blog

The New York Mets lost to the Los Angels Dodgers 5-4 on Tuesday.  Nelsen Figueroa started the game for the Mets.  While he had a mediocre outing, he did pitch well enough to keep the Mets in the game.  Figueroa pitched five innings, allowing 5 runs on 5 hits, and one homerun, while walking four and striking out three.  Aaron Heilman, Joe Smith, and Pedro Feliciano all pitched in relief and all put up zeros across the board. 

Figueroa gave up an inside the park homerun that scored the tying and go ahead runs in the bottom of the fifth.  Blake DeWitt hit a line drive that Ryan Church went back on, Church hit the wall and appeared to be dazed for a moment, he told reporters that he thought the ball had gone out and instead, when he realized that the umpire was signaling that in fact they ball was still in play, it was too late to recover, both Russell Martin and DeWitt would score. After the inning was over, Church actually apologized to Figueroa, putting the blame for the loss of the lead (and the game) on himself. 

Early on the Mets had a 4-1 lead, and after chasing starting pitcher Hiroki Kuroda from the game, seemed as if they were in control.  Ryan Church hit a solo homer in the first inning making the score 1-0.  In the second, the Mets would add on two more.  In the third, the Mets scored their fourth, and final run on a double steal.  With Brian Schneider at the plate, Angel Pagan on first and Moises Alou on third, Pagan stole second, drawing a throw from Dodger’s catcher Russell Martin, which allowed Alou to steal home, both runners were safe and the Mets had a 4-1 lead.   

That 4-1 lead would not be safe.  While you could argue that Figueroa did not have a quality start, if you watched the game or even read the box score, the real problem with the Mets was and continues to be the struggling offense.  The Mets were 2-14 with runners in scoring position on Tuesday night and as a team, left 13 guys on base.  David Wright was 0-4 with 3 strike outs and was the only Met to not record a hit in the game.  Wright’s average has fallen to .265.  There are only two Mets who have .300 or better batting averages and that is Ryan Church and Brian Schneider. 

The Mets are getting killed in the middle of the line up Carlos Beltran’s average is a horrendous .219 and Carlos Delgado’s average is .216-which is actually exciting when you consider a few weeks ago he was hitting .180.  Not only are their averages awful-the RBI guys have a combined 29 RBI-Beltran 13, Delgado 16.  Wow Beltran 13-hitting in the clean up spot?  Just for reference, Jose Reyes, has 14 RBI.  The team leader is David Wright with 26.  You tell me, who is not pulling their weight around here?   

My new favorite Met is Ryan Church.  Coming in to the season there was so much speculation that he would not hit well, can’t hit lefties, yada, yada, yada…Church right now leads the team in average, .314, has the second most RBI (23) and has the second most homeruns on the team (5).  The only Met that Church is second to in these categories is David Wright. 

Carlos Beltran was scratched from Tuesday nights game with flu like symptoms.  It was unclear whether he will be back in the line up for Wednesday’s game.  The Mets will play the final game of the series on Wednesday, with a 3:30 (EST) start.  John Maine will pitch for the Mets and Brad Penny will be on the mound for the Dodgers. After an off day Thursday, they will open a three game series with the Cincinnati Reds.

 Mets Blog

The New York Mets blew their 3-0 lead in the late innings as the Philadelphia Phillies rallied to tie the game, but the Mets prevailed and picked up the win in 12 innings.  I wish the game wouldn’t have went 12 innings, as the Mets should have closed the deal in the 8th inning but give the team credit for coming back and still getting the win.

Jose Reyes scored the winning run in the 12th inning off a Angel Pagan single to centerfield.  Reyes had a wonderful slide into homeplate to score the winning run.  It was a very close plate, and if your a Mets fan you say he was safe, if you are a Phillies fan you say he was out.  All that mattered though was that the umpire called him safe and the Mets went onto win.

Ryan Church had two RBI and Carlos Beltan had one RBI in the game to go along with Pagans RBI.

When they Mets blew their lead in the late innings, they lost the game for John Maine who pitched a good game.  Maine pitched six innings and only allowed one earned run on five hits.  He did have five walks however so that is something that he will need to work on.

Aaron Heilman had the blown save in he game and then Jorge Sosa picked up the win.

Mets Blog

The New York Mets made the Philadelphia Phillies pay for their four errors as they scored six unearned runs on their way to a 8-2 victory.  The Mets did exactly what any team should do when the other team struggles to play defense.  Make them pay, and make them pay by scoring a lot of runs.

Mike Pelfrey picked up his first win of 2008 in the game.  Pelfrey lasted five innings and gave up five hits and two earned runs.  Jorge Sosa, Pedro Feliciano, and Carlos Muniz all pitched out of the bullen and pitched very good.

Angel Pagan led the Mets at the plate with two RBI’s.  Jose Reyes, David Wright, and Damion Easley all finished the game with one RBI each.

Mets Blog

The New York Mets dropped their first spring training game on Wednesday afternoon as they fell to teh Detroit Tigers by the score of 4-2.  It was one bad inning in the 7th inning that the Tigers scored all four of their runs.

Mike Pelfrey started the game for the Mets and pitched two scoreless innings, while Matt Wise, Brian Stokes, Pedro Feliciano and Jorge Sosa followed with a scoreless inning apiece.  Willie Collazo gave up all four runs and took the lose on the game.

As for the Mets offense, they quickly got out to a 2-0 lead in the game as they scored a run in the first and second innings.  In the first inning, Back-to-back singles and a walk in the opening inning set up Ramon Castro’s sacrifice fly to score Angel Pagan.  In the second inning, it was a Anderson Machado triple that plated Michael Abreu that put the Mets up 2-0.

Even though the Mets didn’t win today, you gotta like what they did.  Take that one bad inning out of the game and it could have easily been a Mets victory.  We will have to see how they rebound tomorrow as they face off against the St. Louis Cardinals.

Mets Blog