Looking For Heroes? Try Last Month's Gutter

Show of hands:

Back in May or even June, who amongst you thought you'd be mentioning Carlos Delgado and Aaron Heilman in the same breath as victory and heroes?

Thought so, yet there they were last night, leading the Mets on to a key 4-1 victory ovder the Marlins to hold serve on a slim first place lead in the face of a Phillies victory.

It was Delgado's 2-run homer, his like what, 100th homer in July already to go with his .367 batting average for the month and Heilman's unexpectedly clutch four strikeouts in two innings of set-up work to Hillbilly Wagner, who earned save number 27.

And in addition to that pair, another candidate for the annual Laughingstock to Lazarus Award, Oliver Perez wowed 'em again with with a solid, albeit somewhat abbreviated performance and knocks his ERA down to 1.36 over his last 6 starts.

And frankly, the emergence of Perez, Pelfrey and Delgado form a solid nucleus for explaining why the Mets suddenly look like NL East favourites instead of mutts.

In any event, nice rebound from a frustrating loss the night before. If we'd known we'd might take 6 of 9 from the Phillies, Cardinals and Marlins following the All Star break, I think we'd have known we'd be looking pretty damned good heading into what is expected to be a watered-down August schedule which has the earmarks of sending the Mets skyrocketing into a bulging NL East lead by September. Even if the Phillies get Manny Ramirez.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Talk about cock-eyed optimism. Do the words rotator cuff resound with you? A strained rotator is this far from a torn rotator. They are degrees of the same thing. I like the way they are bouncng back from disgusting losses but I do not trust these guys, especially these hitters. and the BP is a keg of dynamite. Do you think Beltran's performance has anything to do with concerns over being traded? I don't. Maybe he just hates New York and WANTS to be traded.
7:09 PM
Anonymous said…
as for tonight, I have a question. Doesn't it seem like 60% of the balls Brian Schneider hits are grounders to second base.? How can you be so dumb as to make the same mistake again and again and do nothing to counter it?
1:06 AM
Jaap said…
Yeah, strained rotator is not good news no matter how you want to spin it. As for Schneider, whilst it may seem like he's grounding to second far too often, when it's late in the game and the score is close, he's actually usually doing pretty well for us. Not to mention that genius tag out at the plate of Uggla last night so yeah, I wish he'd hit a little more creatively but we didn't get him for that as much as managing the pitchers and his defence. I'd say he did as well as expected so far.
8:03 AM
Anonymous said…
I know he is no Ted Simmons but the same KIND of out!!!!!......
6:50 PM
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