Another beautiful game last night, with the Mets playing perhaps their most complete game in a month....they hit, they hit with power, they ran, they played defense, and they pitched masterfully.
It seems as if the clubhouse meeting had the desired effect of relaxing the players and getting them working as a unified team instead of a group of individuals.
And with the quality of the players, and I mean in terms of personality and ego, I'm not surprised. This is a very solid group of guys--selfless, winners, and all around good people. Brian Schneider, Carlos Delgado, Carlos Beltran, David Wright, Johan Santana and on and on and on.
Other than Billy Wagner have you ever heard anyone say a bad word about any of these guys?Final 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E N.Y. Mets « 0 0 0 4 0 1 0 6 0 11 9 0 N.Y. Yankees 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 2 3 1
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National League East | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB | Home | Road | East | Cent. | West | L10 | Strk | ||||||||||
| Florida | 24 | 19 | .558 | - | 13-11 | 11-8 | 12-5 | 9-8 | 2-4 | 5-5 | L 1 | ||||||||||
| N.Y. Mets | 22 | 19 | .537 | 1 | 12-9 | 10-10 | 13-10 | 4-6 | 3-3 | 6-4 | W 2 | ||||||||||
| Philadelphia | 24 | 21 | .533 | 1 | 13-11 | 11-10 | 5-7 | 9-6 | 9-6 | 4-6 | L 2 | ||||||||||
| Atlanta | 22 | 21 | .512 | 2 | 16-5 | 6-16 | 9-12 | 5-5 | 6-3 | 4-6 | W 1 | ||||||||||
| Washington | 19 | 26 | .422 | 6 | 10-11 | 9-15 | 12-17 | 6-7 | 0-0 | 4-6 | W 1 | ||||||||||
With the two game sweep of the Yankees, the Mets now stand one game back heading into Atlanta with a little momentum on their side. Things are looking up.
In last night's game the Mets looked like a very patient team at the plate. Yankees starter Chien-Ming Wang looked good early, but you could see the Mets were on his pitches despite doing next to nothing the first three innings of the game. And then came the fourth inning and the fireworks.
The Mets loaded the bases and Ryan Church, who seems to be in the middle of everything good the offense does this year, hit an RBI grounder. Church also had a long homerun to deep centerfield in the game. He is quickly becoming the talk of the town and is vindicating Omar Minaya's trade of Lastings Milledge, or "Lastings Who?".
Moises Alou had an excuse me hit into rightfield to plate two more, and then Delgado hit a 3-run homerun to leftfield. The only problem was that the Umps decided to make a horrible, horrible call and reversed the ruling of the Ump who was closest to the play and had correctly signaled a fair ball and homerun.
Home plate umpire Bob Davidson on his call:
"I [messed] up," Davidson said after the Mets' 11-2 win. "I'm the one who thought it was a foul ball. No one feels worse about it than I do. I thought it looked like it hit the fan left of the foul line. I could have sworn it hit that fan or something to the left of the line, but looking at the replay, that wasn't the case."
"I didn't see it," said Delgado, who later asked Davidson about the play. "But if I can't have three [RBIs], I'll take one."
Delgado did wind up with an RBI single in what was another strong at bat for the rebounding slugger. He is taking a lot more pitches of late and his timing looks night and day from the confused wild swinger we saw a few weeks ago.In an outstanding piece from the New York Sun, Alex Britell postulates on Delgado's vision with a nice analysis of his day/night splits.
In another outstanding sign, Jose Reyes continues to look sharp and hit with authority. Mets hitting coach Howard Johnson has been working with Reyes on keeping his head steady to increase his focus. Reyes homered for the second straight game with a mighty 3-run blast.
"I feel very good right now at home plate from the left side," said Reyes, who collected all four hits against the Yankees batting lefty. "I just have to continue like that in Atlanta."
Hojo on Reyes: "We're a good enough ballclub, and I think he understands it, that when he's going well, we're really clicking on all cylinders," Mets hitting coach Howard Johnson said. "But I think we have the kind of offense where if one or two guys aren't quite doing their thing, we could still survive. We have to be able to do that."
But the real star of the game was Ollie Perez.
Ollie lasted 7 2/3rds strong innings and baffled the surprisingly left-hand heavy lineup that Yankees Skipper Joe Girardi put out there.
Think about this Mets fans: Lefty's are hitting .093 against Ollie on the year. If you were a manager, how many lefty's would you start against him?
Thank you Joe Girardi!
Ollie's only "mistake" was allowing a 2-run homerun to Hideki Matsui, and on that pitch I give Godzilla credit for turning on a pitch that was designed to bust him inside.
It was Perez' third straight quality start and a terrific sign of things to come.
As for the Mets, they should all enjoy their coffee this morning....the tenor of the club and the momentum they carry into Atlanta should make for an exciting few weeks of baseball.
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