Giddy Extra Inning Win Keeps Mets In First

The victory was everything that the loss the night before, wasn't.


The game culminated on a someone else walking home the winning run for a change. Beltran is finally making a claim for NL MVP. Early, yes, but he is carrying the team on his back.

Down 3-0 in the 8th the Mets staged a brilliant comeback to complete a 4-3 10 inning victory, their first victory when trailing after 8 innings ALL SEASON. That was 13 straight games without a victory when trailing after 8. A big milestone crossed.

Of course, it helped that the ump blew the call with Carlos Beltran boldly stealing 3rd in the 9th inning still trailing by a run. Had the ump gotten the call right no doubt the Mets would have gone down meekly. Instead, they took advantage of a call going their way, played aggressively (not only Beltran's steal, but Reyes' steal of 2nd in the 10th inning which ultimately proved to be the winning run).

Larry wasn't happy his tag out of Beltran was missed. “Let’s just say the baseball gods owe us one,” Larry cried. “The game came down to one play, and the umpire got it wrong. Why he got it wrong, I don’t know.” But that wasn't enough for Larry, he still had more tears to cry: “I never had a guy slide into my glove and be safe,” Jones cried like a school girl. “That’s the whole game. … We played a perfect game and got it taken away from us.”

Thereafter perhaps it was only a matter of time in the bottom of the 10th before the Mets made it official.

So there you have it, a team's win, perhaps the best of the season to date. Come-from-behind, daring, dangerous and of course helped by an inept Braves bullpen who walked home the winning run but a gutty win, the kind of a win from a team with heart. Finally.

*****

Big Pelf showing growing strength

As for the rest of the game leading up to this magical moment, you begin with a very encouraging outing from Big Pelf who threw 7 strong innings of 6 hit, 2 run ball and kept the Mets in the game even as they were being completely shut down by Jair Jurrjens, who held the Mets in check until the 8th inning when he clearly began to tire.

Now, before we get into a huff about the ineffectiveness of the Mets batting order it's important to remember that when it truly counted, they did the job and second, Jurrgens is a great young pitcher.

*****

“Good hitting and stupid base running,” Reyes said. Indeed.

So it was Reyes' massive two-run double off of Jurrgens in the 8th that brought the Mets to the verge yet when he tried like a madman, a greedy, stupid man, to turn the double into a triple, he ended the rally leaving it to Beltran's heroics; the lead off double in the 9th, the dodgy steal of 3rd and then getting sacrificed home by Luis Castillo to tie the game.

The less about J J Putz tonight, the better.

And the more said about K-Rod's two-inning outing last night, his first win as a Met, the better.

*****


In lieu of yet another photo of Wright failing in the clutch how about one of him getting thrown out trying to steal, just for a change of pace, eh?

As for David Wright, a night of mostly bad news: striking out looking in the 4th with two men on for shame and getting thrown out at the plate in the 7th after tripling and trying to score on a shallow fly ball.

You might like the Mets aggressive behaviour on the base paths. It helped win the game last night in a sense but just as easily, it could have lost it for the Mets so whilst aggression is applauded, stupid aggression isn't. Let's see if Jerry's lads can figure out the difference.


And there's still a little trouble fielding that left field position

Might wonder if Delgado needs to go the DH how much it might mess up Murphy's head to platoon with Tatis at first base. Naaah. It's messed up enough already out there.

Could we package Wright and Ollie to the Nats for Zimmerman? Well, after his hitting streak ends, of course. Say, July or August....