They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder and that every mother thinks her baby is beautiful.
Some may call it ugly, some may call it beautiful...to most fans the Mets game yesterday was "pretty enough."
They split the series on the road against a Reds team that is 28-21 at home, and for the second time in the last few weeks battered around a Cy Young frontrunner.
Tim Lincecum and Edinson Volquez are 23-3 between them, and the Mets tattooed them both.
At a time of the season where every game means just a little bit more than the one that proceeded it, the Mets managed to come out on top in an extra-inning affair and re-gain a share of first-place in the suddenly ultra-tight NL East.
The Marlins took 2 of 3 from the slumping Phillies, and now a scant half game separates the top 3 teams.
| National League East | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB | Home | Road | East | Cent. | West | L10 | Strk | ||||||||||
| N.Y. Mets | 53 | 46 | .535 | - | 28-18 | 25-28 | 18-16 | 8-10 | 18-14 | 8-2 | W 1 | ||||||||||
| Philadelphia | 53 | 46 | .535 | - | 27-23 | 26-23 | 18-16 | 17-12 | 14-7 | 5-5 | L 2 | ||||||||||
| Florida | 52 | 46 | .531 | ½ | 28-21 | 24-25 | 21-15 | 11-10 | 15-11 | 7-3 | W 2 | ||||||||||
| Atlanta | 46 | 52 | .469 | 6½ | 31-20 | 15-32 | 17-21 | 9-16 | 12-8 | 5-5 | L 2 | ||||||||||
| Washington | 38 | 61 | .384 | 15 | 20-30 | 18-31 | 16-22 | 11-19 | 3-10 | 4-6 | W 2 | ||||||||||
As all Mets fans know, the Phils come to Shea tomorrow night for a 3-game showdown that has Mets fans licking their lips in anticipation. The players know it, the coaches know it, and the fans know it--this is going to be a battle.
"It's going to be exciting because we always have a war with them," catcher Ramon Castro said. "We're tied now. We have to win at least two."
"It's a lot better than playing them in Philadelphia," closer Billy Wagner said. "I hope our fans are ready."
Yesterday's game featured a lot of offense, the long ball, semi-disappointing outings from two of the wunderkind starting pitchers in the NL, and some pretty bad defense.
On the defensive side of the ball Jose Reyes let one go right through the wickets, but that wasn't close to being the worst play of the game.
Ken Griffey, Jr hit a soft fly ball to left that Marlon Anderson apparently never got a bead on--he kind of aimlessly loped toward the stands as if chasing a foul ball he had no chance at. A moment later the ball dropped in fair territory, just a few feet away from him as he was looking into the stands along the foul line.
"I was pretty upset," Manuel said about Anderson's gaffe.
Anderson said he had trouble picking it back up after running in the general vicinity of the ball with his head down. "If I'd have seen it, I would have caught it," he said. "I dropped my head and ran trying to get to the spot, and once I looked up, I didn't see it. It almost hit me in the head."
That was the start of Mike Pelfrey's "bad inning." After the Griffey double (hometown scoring), the Reds scored 3 more runs, one on a homerun by Encarnacion, and tied the game at 4. Up to that point Pelfrey had been cruising, only allowing 1 run on an Adam Dunn HR in the bandbox.
Brandon Phillips took Pelfrey deep in the 6th, but Pelfrey otherwise limited the damage and went 7 innings to keep his team in the game.
"I feel like I'm getting better," Pelfrey said. "I thought not pitching in nine days, my command was a little off, especially with the sinker. The sinker wasn't very good today. That's my out pitch. It just wasn't very good. Command wise, I was just a little off.
"It definitely wasn't a quality start, but I thought I kept the team in the game and the bottom line is we won." There was also some timely hitting by the Mets that led to the victory.
Carlos Delgado continues to rake. He was 3 for 4 on the day, drove in two runs, and is absolutely flying in July. He has 57 RBIs on the year and a very respectable .815 OPS. In July Carlos is hitting .397 with 10 RBIs to go along with a .707 slugging percentage.
Jose Reyes was a spark, going 4 for 6 and scoring 3 runs. Argenis Reyes acquitted himself well in the start and was in the middle of the 10th inning rally. Ramon Castro hit a big homerun, and Robinson Cancel started it all off in the 10th with a clutch double.
Duaner Sanchez pitched two innings of shutout ball to get the win, and Billy Wagner struck out the side in the bottom of the 10th to get the save.
Wagner, as we reported yesterday, suffered some tightness in his deltoid and will be examined today.
So bring on the Phils and let's have us a little bit of old-time NL East fun....Big Dog vs Big Dog, and there is only one fire hydrant.
Johan Santana vs newly acquired Joe Blanton kicks off the showdown at Shea, and Mets fans can't wait.
It's definitely an interesting time to be a Mets fan.
Enjoy your coffee!
| Scoreboard | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Final 10th | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | R | H | E | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| N.Y. Mets (53-46) « | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 14 | 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cincinnati (48-52) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 6 | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Players of the Game |
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| New York Mets | ||||||||
| Hitters | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO | LOB | AVG |
| Jose Reyes, SS | 6 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .300 |
| Argenis Reyes, 2B | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | .308 |
| David Wright, 3B | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 3 | .286 |
| Carlos Beltran, CF | 6 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 | .271 |
| Carlos Delgado, 1B | 4 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | .261 |
| Marlon Anderson, LF | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | .205 |
| a- Fernando Tatis, PH-LF | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | .295 |
| Ramon Castro, C | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 7 | .289 |
| Endy Chavez, RF | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | .255 |
| Mike Pelfrey, P | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .118 |
| b- Damion Easley, PH | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .277 |
| Duaner Sanchez, P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
| c- Robinson Cancel, PH | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .286 |
| Billy Wagner, P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
| Totals | 41 | 7 | 14 | 6 | 7 | 9 | ||
| a-walked for Anderson in the 7th | ||||||||
| b-struck out for Pelfrey in the 8th | ||||||||
| c-doubled for Sanchez in the 10th | ||||||||
| Batting | ||||||||
| 2B - Carlos Delgado (20, Volquez), Robinson Cancel (1, Bray) | ||||||||
| 3B - Jose Reyes (11, Volquez) | ||||||||
| HR - Ramon Castro (4, Volquez) | ||||||||
| SF - David Wright (7), Carlos Delgado (4) | ||||||||
| RBI - David Wright (76), Carlos Beltran (68), Carlos Delgado 2 (57), Ramon Castro 2 (16) | ||||||||
| 2-OUT RBI - Ramon Castro 2 (12) | ||||||||
| SB - Jose Reyes (33, 3rd base off Volquez/Bako), David Wright (12, 2nd base off Affeldt/Bako), Carlos Beltran (16, 2nd base off Cordero/Bako) | ||||||||
| CS - Carlos Beltran (2, 3rd base by Cordero/Bako) | ||||||||
| Team LOB - 14 | ||||||||
| Fielding | ||||||||
| DP - Reyes-A. Reyes-Delgado, Reyes-A. Reyes-Delgado | ||||||||
| E - Ramon Castro (3, Throwing), Jose Reyes (13, Misplayed grounder) | ||||||||
| New York Mets | ||||||||
| Pitchers | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA |
| Mike Pelfrey | 7 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 3.81 |
| Duaner Sanchez (W,5-1) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3.32 |
| Billy Wagner (S,24) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2.20 |
| Pitches-Strikes - Mike Pelfrey 89-57, Duaner Sanchez 30-16, Billy Wagner 16-10 | ||||||||
| Ground Balls-Fly Balls - Mike Pelfrey 8-8, Duaner Sanchez 2-2 | ||||||||
| Batters Faced - Mike Pelfrey 27, Duaner Sanchez 7, Billy Wagner 3 | ||||||||
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