Redemption: Mets Take Back First Place
The only thing you can say with any certainty about these 2008 Mets is that you never know what they are going to do.
Ok, you can probably squawk "the bullpen sucks, the bullpen sucks" and be pretty safe most nights but every thing else is pretty much a crap shoot.
Last night, even the bullpen would have proved you wrong.
Brian Stokes pitched his fifth consecutive scoreless inning and has given up only 2 runs in 11 1/3 relief innings he's pitched for the Mets this season while earning the win.
And with the lead and the game at stake the dreadful duo of Pedro Feliciano and Joe Smith somehow managed to combine to pitch an eventless and quiet 8th.
In the 9th, Luis Ayala, a broken bat hit away from a flawless Met career and the defacto closer perhaps the rest of the way through, closed out the game 1-2-3 to earn his second save as a Met this season.
Meanwhile, and perhaps even more ironic, the vaunted Phillies pen disintegrated in the 8th to blow this game.
Brian Schneider, the guy whose head many of us would have like seen on a pike outside of Shea for that misplayed throw to the plate the night before that pretty much cost the Mets the game, what did he do? Mr Defensive Catcher "only" hit a two-out two-run single off of the impenetrable Brad Lidge to seal the three run lead.
Rookie Murph was even more miraculous, doubling home the lead run in the 8th on Lidge's second pitch.
And Carlos Delgado, the guy written off by pretty much everyone on earth earlier this season continued to yank the Mets forward with his inexplicable resurgence, golfing a pair of pitches out of the park to go along with his RBI single in the first to pretty much carry the Mets to victory. 19 homers and 57 RBIs since June and the Mets have found themselves their cleanup hitter. Hitting .301 since the All Star game.
Yes, as hideous as Tuesday Night's 13th inning debaucherie was, tonight's 8th inning two-out rally was just as beautiful.
Shouldn't last night's salary be donated to charity?
Johan Santana, on the other hand, way for the ace to come up big in an important game. I know, he gutted out those final three outs of his outing when the game could have completely gotten out of hand but really - when you're making like, a trillion dollars a pitch, when you're the go-to guy in the rotation, is that performance last night something to be proud of?
I mean, even David Wright, hitless in 5 at-bats, made that unbelievable play in the 8th to help the pen.
Santana? How about some complete game shutouts to close out the season?
And to make this an almost perfect day, the Yankmees have pretty much been knocked out of the post season. Boo-hoo.
Ok, you can probably squawk "the bullpen sucks, the bullpen sucks" and be pretty safe most nights but every thing else is pretty much a crap shoot.
Last night, even the bullpen would have proved you wrong.
Brian Stokes pitched his fifth consecutive scoreless inning and has given up only 2 runs in 11 1/3 relief innings he's pitched for the Mets this season while earning the win.
And with the lead and the game at stake the dreadful duo of Pedro Feliciano and Joe Smith somehow managed to combine to pitch an eventless and quiet 8th.
In the 9th, Luis Ayala, a broken bat hit away from a flawless Met career and the defacto closer perhaps the rest of the way through, closed out the game 1-2-3 to earn his second save as a Met this season.
Meanwhile, and perhaps even more ironic, the vaunted Phillies pen disintegrated in the 8th to blow this game.
Brian Schneider, the guy whose head many of us would have like seen on a pike outside of Shea for that misplayed throw to the plate the night before that pretty much cost the Mets the game, what did he do? Mr Defensive Catcher "only" hit a two-out two-run single off of the impenetrable Brad Lidge to seal the three run lead.
Rookie Murph was even more miraculous, doubling home the lead run in the 8th on Lidge's second pitch.
And Carlos Delgado, the guy written off by pretty much everyone on earth earlier this season continued to yank the Mets forward with his inexplicable resurgence, golfing a pair of pitches out of the park to go along with his RBI single in the first to pretty much carry the Mets to victory. 19 homers and 57 RBIs since June and the Mets have found themselves their cleanup hitter. Hitting .301 since the All Star game.
Yes, as hideous as Tuesday Night's 13th inning debaucherie was, tonight's 8th inning two-out rally was just as beautiful.
Shouldn't last night's salary be donated to charity?
Johan Santana, on the other hand, way for the ace to come up big in an important game. I know, he gutted out those final three outs of his outing when the game could have completely gotten out of hand but really - when you're making like, a trillion dollars a pitch, when you're the go-to guy in the rotation, is that performance last night something to be proud of?
I mean, even David Wright, hitless in 5 at-bats, made that unbelievable play in the 8th to help the pen.
Santana? How about some complete game shutouts to close out the season?
And to make this an almost perfect day, the Yankmees have pretty much been knocked out of the post season. Boo-hoo.
Comments
the pen sucks meatballs. wouldn't a Mets/Cubs sweep in the coming days be tasty though?
They have a big offensive lineup that can look totally impotent at times. And their bullpen has ranged from great to GHASTLY.
And I discovered another thing we have in common with the Phillies: They also have a passive-aggressive closer who finds a way to show them how he feels about being asked to pitch in the 8th inning.