CLINCHED! Shea Celebrates

It took 91 victories, 149 games over 168 days but the New York Mets, who began the season on a Monday, clinched the NL East on a Monday with a relieving 4-0 victory over the Florida Marlins.


The cornerstones of the Mets future celebrate their first championship together

The details, after three consecutive games waiting to exhale are almost irrelevant save for the fact that Steve Trachsel threw 6 1/3 shutout innings and renewed his potential claim for a place in the postseason rotation, holding an opponent scoreless for the first time in 29 starts this season.

It wasn't the first time Trachsel has pitched a clincher, either. He provided a similar 6 1/3 scoreless innings on Sept. 28, 1998 for the Chicago Cubs in a one-game Wild Card playoff against the Giants.

Following Trachsel were Guillermo Mota, Aaron Heilman and Billy Wagner who combined to allow only a single hit, no runs over the final, celebratory 2 2/3 innings.


Shea celebrates

The Mets won in neither of their trademark manners. It wasn't a one-run game,w hich they have won 29 of 44, a record that no other National League team can compare to. And the Mets didn't win by scoring in the first inning although they lead the league in first-inning runs, with 123.

They didn't with any of their aces starting on the mound, instead, an oft-maligned Trachsel led the way with a sharp performance.

They weren't carried in this game by any of their potential MVPs, Carlos Beltran, Jose Reyes, David Wright or Carlos Delgado.

They were carried by Jose Valentin's pair of homers, one in the second and another in the fifth, which resulted in three of the four runs they scored.

Valentin of course, was signed in the winter in a one year deal worth a mere $912,500, yet another under-the-radar deal by Omar Minaya and a key component to the 2006 Mets.



And whilst Shea celebrates, Jose Reyes dons his champagne goggles and Queens goes wild, England is eerily quiet. You could almost hear the crickets.