21.8.08

No Closer? No Worries

It may do him irrepairable harm somewhere down the future, according to the doom mongers and nervous pitch count Nellies out there but Mike Pelfrey demonstrated he's willing and able to throw over the Maginot Line of 100 pitches and to throw a complete game for good measure.

Result?

You betcha.

Mets take another off the Braves. Ever get sick of saying that? I didn't think so.


A man steps up to the mound...

Hopefully this won't lead to permanent damage but Pelfrey is the Mets' biggest surprise of the season from a pitching standpoint (the contributions of Church, Tatis, Murph, Lil' Reyes, Evans, Castro, Cancel, etc etc at the plate are equally welcomed but having a guy like Pelf develop before our eyes, especially after that hideous 0-7 start last season, well, sometimes the scouts are right after all.)


What, complete game not enough for you? How about an RBI single in the 1st?

And talk about rising to the occasion: knowing their bullpen is crap, the starters have as they say, kicked it up a notch and are a collective 7-0 with a 1.83 ERA over their last 8 starts. Granted, against the dregs of the NL, but hell, this contribution is enormous at this point in the season. If they're lucky, their will reward will be a renewed bullpen by the time their red heat begins to fade.

And to top it all off, the Mets added more to the mountain of potential closers in the form of Al Reyes, adding to their odds of success with every new face and arm, even if they are the faces and arms of retreads and failed experiments. This is Omar's territory, slobbering up the table scraps and finding some little morsels taste better than others.

And oh yeah: Mets Beat Braves again. Always a delicious sentence.

2 comments:

katherine said...

Jaap - you're right - beating the Braves is SO sweet. Oh, the pleasure I got from seeing old grumpus Bobby Cox slouched over in the dugout. And to hear that Francoeur actually had been sent to the minors? Hilarious! Remember the game - was it last year or this year? - where Pelfrey accidentally hit Francoeur with a pitch (it was when he was so wild) and Francoeur went ballistic and screamed at him all the way to first base that this was the second time Pelfrey had hit him, and it really upset Pelfrey. Then after the game Francoeur admitted he just made that all up to try to fire up his teammates. He's been on my personal hate list ever since then. Anyway, sweet revenge for Mike.

Have you noticed Mike hasn't worn that ugly disgusting mouthguard since early May? Possibly not a coincidence he's generally been great since he got rid of it.

Anonymous said...

Yes, I have a friend who thinks the mouthguard was the key. I am so excited about Al Reyes. Especially when I learned that the police had to taser him TWICE during a baroom brawl in Tampa early in the season. I cannot wait til he comes up. Pelfrey looks like a real pro out there. 2 hours 8 minutes. 'Nuff said.