Fare Thee Well, Senor Goggles

You gave us many great moments, and we'll miss seeing that bespectled face charging to the mound.

Hopefully the arm strength and speed come back.

I am wearing goggles with my suit today in your honor.

And yes, I look like an idiot...but I don't care!

Good Morning Mets Fans!

Well yesterday sure looked like a sleepwalk for the Mets--through the first seven innings.

But as they say, it's not how you start, it's how you finish the race.

The Mets, thanks to Carlos Beltran, David Wright, Fernando Tatis, and Pelfrey, Goggles and Wags, finished the race.

For the Mets it was their second scintillating comeback win of the week, and it was really a beauty at the end, on National TV, with a packed house at Shea.

Final	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
L.A. Dodgers	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	7	1
N.Y. Mets «	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	x	3	8	1

W: D. Sanchez (2-0) L: J. Broxton (2-2) S: B. Wagner (11) HR: LA - None NYM - C. Beltran (5)

Recap/Box · GameCenter

Mike Pelfrey had what I've begun to term a "5th Starter Gem". He was rocky at the start, allowing two earned runs through four, but he held his ground. He also retired the last 12 hitters he faced.

So does this mean the 5th starter role is Big Pelf's to keep? Willie didn't really say one way or the other.

"We've got a tough decision to make in a couple of days," Randolph said. "But I just think this is a great step for Mike as a young pitcher, to see how he deals with adversity and ups and downs. Today he came through with flying colors."

Pedro comes back next week, and that means the Mets will have one to many pitchers in the rotation. Pelfrey's competition, Caludio Vargas, has also pitched well in his few starts and is out of options. Pelfrey still has options.

"If they tell me, 'Go to New Orleans,' it's not the first time," Pelfrey said, downplaying the situation. "If they say, 'Hey, you go to the bullpen,' it's not the first time."

Most impressive was Pelfrey's control and use of his fastball. All in all he went 7 strong, walked only 1, struck out 6, and took the Mets deep into a ballgame. That's everything you want from your 5th starter, and more.

The pitchers had a great day. After Pelfrey exited Duaner Sanchez came on to throw a hitless inning and was the recipient of the victory.

Billy Wagner came on in the 9th and simply blew the Dodgers away. Three strikeouts in a row and his 11th save of the year.

New York Mets
Pitchers	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Mike Pelfrey	7	7	2	2	1	6	0	4.98
Duaner Sanchez (W,2-0)	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	4.12
Billy Wagner (S,11)	1	0	0	0	0	3	0	0.39
Pitches-Strikes - Mike Pelfrey 109-69, Duaner Sanchez 11-9, Billy Wagner 15-11
Ground Balls-Fly Balls - Mike Pelfrey 7-7, Duaner Sanchez 3-0
Batters Faced - Mike Pelfrey 28, Duaner Sanchez 3, Billy Wagner 3

The rally began in the bottom of the 8th. The Dodgers went to 290 lb Jonathan Broxton and if this was a heavyweight fight in the literal sense, it would have been all over....the man is bigger than a mountain. Thankfully it was a baseball game and we have David Wright and Carlos Beltran on our side.

David Wright promptly greeted Broxton with a double, his 17th f the year, which puts him on a pace for 50 doubles. David Wright is a doubles machine and could one day challenge for the all-time mark.

Carlos Beltran came to the plate and dug his heels in. Beltran has been hitting the ball all over the place with decent results. His average and OBP are up, he is walking a ton, scoring runs, and playing stellar defense. What he hasn't been doing is hitting home runs.

With one swing he changed that, and he changed the Mets fortunes on the day. He took a low slider deep over the wall to tie the game and put a jolt into the Shea faithful.

Carlos Delgado then lined a single and Damian Easley sacrificed him over to second. The Dodgers decided to intentionally walk the struggling Brian Schneider, which set up Fernando Tatis to once again play the role of hero. He didn't disappoint.

Tatis, who won Wednesday's game with a two-run double in the 12th inning against the Marlins, drilled an RBI single to give the Mets a 3-2 lead.

"It's amazing," the journeyman Tatis said. "It's good for this team. We need to win."

I am so glad this cat is on our team...he looks like Mighty Mouse and hits like Lenny Dykstra--clutch.

Here are some updates on Luis Castillo and Ryan Church--I expect both to be available for tonight's game.

A nice little feature on Mets.Com about Jose Reyes and his offensive turnaround.

Beltran's Big Blast from Newsday.

A great piece (as always) in the NY Times on Fernando Tatis by Jack Curry.

More on Mike Pelfrey and his fight to stay in the rotation from the Daily News.

OK beautiful people...enjoy your coffee and go spend some time with your family today.

We're heading to a wine tasting, and we'll see you back later on for the game.

Good Morning Mets Fans!

Mets Scoreboard
Final 11th	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	R	H	E
Pittsburgh (10-16)	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	4	8	1
N.Y. Mets (14-11) «	0	0	0	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	5	9	1

David Wright snapped an "oh'fer" night with a game winning RBI "single" deep to the right field corner in the bottom of the 11th to give the Mets the win over a game Pittsburgh Pirates team.

"I was begging the wind to keep it fair, and it barely stayed in," said Wright, who was 0-for-4 when he came up in the 11th. "It was the ball vs. the wind, and the wind was slowly taking it, but it got down just in time."

The game was filled with good and not so good moments, including two more home runs given up by Mets ace Johan Santana. It wasn't a great outing by Santana, but as Ken Davidoff at Newsday reports, "You haven't seen the best of Santana yet."

"They haven't seen a really good Johan yet," Doug Mientkiewicz, now with the Pirates, said yesterday, before the Mets and Pirates slogged their way to a 5-4 Mets victory in 11 innings. "Johan's always started slow. Even in Minnesota. He always started very slow. But then as soon as the season started developing, he was lights out."

When asked about last night's game, Mets manager Willie Randolph was pretty pragmatic, "We'll take the win, although it wasn't real pretty." Willie's frustration probably stemmed from the Mets woeful 1 for 10 performance with runners on base.

The star, and some might say the near-goat, of the night was Jose Reyes. Reyes reached base in all six at-bats with 3 walks and 3 hits, including his third triple of the year.

Reyes also had a throwing error in the 9th that led to the tying run. That run, though unearned, was the first that Billy Wagner has allowed all season.

Ryan Church continued his strong 2008 with a 2-run home run. In a terrific article at the NY Daily News, Church talks about his family and their impact on his life.

On the Mets team website, they are already pimping him for an All-Star slot. Ummmm, OK, it is waaaaay too early for that. Let's just enjoy his solid play and hope he can maintain this pace for a full season.

In a night where the bullpen pitched 5 1/3 innings, we saw more of the good/bad that has defined the Mets of early 2008.

NY Mets	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Santana	5.2	2	2	2	3	7	2	3.12
Feliciano (H, 5)	0.1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1.08
Heilman (H, 5)	0.1	1	0	0	1	0	0	6.28
Schoeneweis (H, 4)	0.2	0	0	0	0	0	0	2.08
Sanchez (H, 4)	1.0	2	1	1	2	1	0	1.17
Wagner (BS, 1)	2.0	2	1	0	0	2	0	0.00
Sosa (W, 3-1)	1.0	1	0	0	0	0	0	6.89

The first reliever was Pedro Feliciano, who came in and got the one out that helped Santana escape with the lead. He mixed his devastating slider with superb location to get the Mets out of a 6th inning bases-loaded jam. Adam Laroche looked overmatched against the crafty lefthander.

Aaron Heilman entered the game to a chorus of boos (enough already Mets fans!), and gave up a walk and a hit before getting an out. Scott Schoeneweiss, who is having a heck of a year, relieved Heilman and got two key outs. The final out came on a close play at home after Mets catcher Casanova let the ball get by him, he quickly recovered and fired a strike to Schoeneweis covering at the plate to nail Jose Bautista trying to score from third. In all honesty Bautista looked safe, but the Mets got the benefit of the call on the close play.

In the 8th Mets manager brought in Duaner Sanchez to try and hold the Mets 4-2 lead. It's obvious that Sanchez is looked at as the Mets 8th inning guy this year, and this was his first major test. It wasn't a good one.

Sanchez loaded the bases and never looked comfortbale on the mound. The gritty reliever hung in there and only gave up one run.

He loaded the bases on a walk to Xavier Nady, then walked Chris Gomez to decrease the lead to one run. He got out of the inning on a grounder from Jose Bautista and a popup by Ronny Paulino.

Mission semi-accomplished: "He was able to dodge a big bullet there," manager Willie Randolph said.

In the 9th Jose Reyes' error allowed the Pirates to get the key runner on base. After Billy Wagner uncorked a wild pitch and gave up a bloop single to Freddy Sanchez, the game was tied.

Wagner then settled down and pitched the rest of the 9th, and the 10th inning, in his usual dominating fashion.

Jorge Sosa pitched the 11th for the win. Surprising stat of the year: Jorge Sosa is tied for the Mets lead in wins.

The bottom of the 11th finally brought the game winning run.

Endy Chavez singled off John Van Benschoten (0-1), Pittsburgh's sixth pitcher, to start things off. Van Benschoten, called up Sunday when Matt Morris was released, balked to move Chavez to second. On the SNY replay you could clearly see him lean in and flinch before stepping off the rubber.

Marlon Anderson sacrificed Chavez to third and Jose Reyes was walked intentionally. Luis Castillo came up with a chance to drive the run in, but he patiently drew another walk to load the bases for David Wright.

Wright then hit a fly that just barely landed inside the right-field line, causing a delayed reaction from the players and fans.

My reaction was a sigh of relief.

Enjoy your coffee Mets fans!