Hard to imagine, Olly pitching consistently, Delgado still playing vintage Delgado...
He was coming off a 120 pitch start, he has a prediliction for failing to concentrate against the rubbish teams, and at this point in the season, the Nats certainly qualify as rubbish and well, what were the odds that the Mets, with their own rubbish overflowing out of the bullpen, were going to be able to avoid disaster for thee consecutive games and complete their first road sweep of the season?
But surprise, surprise.
Perez, with a 1.97 ERA in his last 9 starts, pitched extended his scoreless inning streak to 15 games before finally succumbing to reality in the 7th and letting three in to narrow the Mets margin to 5-3 and making us all exceedingly jittery at the prospects of the bullpen coming in and the lifeless Nats suddenly springing to life.
Instead, Joe Smith came in and closed off the bleeding in the 7th but before we could even remotely begin to trust him, he walked a pair of Nats in the 8th leaving the game in danger for Duaner Sanchez, who I assert is the only reasonably stable reliever the Mets have at this point which is not saying very much at all. Sanchez got both outs to end the 8th, another land mine avoided.
But still all of us were wondering with that slim 5-3 lead and three very large outs to go whether or not this was really such a good idea before the Mets pinched out 4 runs in the top of the 9th to give Aaron Heilman a reasonable amount of breathing room or margin for error and a 9-3 even the HE couldn't blow.
Damion Easley's pinch-hit two run single in the 9th was a great assist to make the final three outs more tolerable and you have to wonder at Carlos Delgado's continued resurgence, his full return to the Delgado of old. The homer he hit in the 6th seemed almost effortless.
And Brian Schneider, ok, not pinch-hitting with the bases loaded like in the opener, finally hit a homer - the first one since like, Little League and again coming against his former teammates. Of course, Schneider reminds everyone that the Mets traded Lastings Milledge but frankly, given full opportunity to flourish, he isn't such a spectacular rapping five tool player after all, is he? .256 batting average on the season - sure, he made a nice grab of David Wright's shot but he made it look harder than it really was by stepping back just a bit as he was already into his stride. It almost looked like one of those Victor Diaz, now-I-see-it-now-I-don't sort of last second stabs that looked a lot harder than it should have.
In any event, thank you, Nats. (And belated, thank you Dodgers for stomping down the Phillies...)
Three victories and sole possession of first place.
Not a bad way to start a road trip. Now let's go see if the Pirates are still trying to give games away up in Pittsburgh.
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6 comments:
With Perez in the final year of his contract - no surprise he's learned to concentrate a little - I don't think the Mets should re-sign him considering Boras as his agent will cash in even on a half-season of concentratio. No doubt the minute the ink dries he'll forget how to pitch again.
Milledge is the kind of guy you can tell is an a-hole without ever hearing him speak. That is a singular talent he has. Perez re- signing is dicey. If Omar had a plan for, say, a year or two from now, he might havde some other high priced starter lined up. He may also be paying Pelfrey big money in two or three years. Sometimes you have to let go of the bird in the hand.
I just looked at the schedule. The net 11 games are all very winnable with our rotation. Again I am saying 9 of 11. The season could depend on these games.
sanchez, I agree fuck perez, he will dog it mentally the minute he signs a big deal, you're right. I reckon we should save our money for el duque's hip replacement surgery.
jdon, milledge is what we call a cunt. that we got anything for him is amazing. he reminds me of cedeno -remember that guy? had all the tools but none of the desire. milledge will be good when he's 32 and waning after no one expects anything out of him any more.
jdon - don't fret the schedule, the mets will win the nl east - it's who they have to play to get further that bothers me.
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