The day after the Mets lost Pedro Martinez for a month or more, Oliver Perez came out and made us all forget about that injury with a stellar performance tonight against the Marlins, leading the Mets to a 13-0 win.
Perez pitched six innings, allowing five hits, walked only one, while striking out eight. Perez only threw 92 pitches, 59 for strikes. Perez got help from Ryan Church in the first inning, when he threw out Hanley Ramirez with a bullet to second base. Perez also was part of a nice double play, fielding a comebacker, waiting on Luis Castillo to move to second, and then having Castillo make a great throw to Carlos Delgado at first.
Great stuff from Perez tonight. The one walk is huge for him, and his slider was absolutely nasty and it helped him in setting down eight Marlins tonight. If he can harness this, and stop being the wild and unpredictable Perez we usually see glimpses of, this could be a huge year for him in his walk year.
Nelson Figueroa, who made it to the stadium only hours before the game started as he will be taking Pedro's spot on the roster and signed his contract on the dugout steps, made his first appearance as a Met, pitching a hitless inning and striking out Jorge Cantu. Pedro Feliciano also made his first appearance this season, allowing one hit in his one inning of work. Billy Wagner struck out one while on the bump.
I love the Figgy. Figueroa looked solid in his first start in the majors in four years. Love this guys stuff and his story. Nice to get some Feliciano into my life. Wags was excellent, as usual.
The offense absolutely came to play today. The Mets picked up 13 runs on 17 hits, six of which went for doubles.
Church, Beltran and David Wright each picked up three hits today. Beltran hit three doubles, one of which was actually a miscalled home run. The ball Beltran hit originally was called a double, then it was changed to a home run. The umpires huddled and took back the home run and made Beltran come back out to second base. Beltran drove in one RBI and scored twice. Church picked up three RBI and scored twice, roping a two-run blast to right field in the top of the second inning. Wright picked up a double and blasted a three-run home run to deep left field in the sixth inning. He also scored twice.
Absolutely huge nights from these three guys. Unbelievable. Beltran is on fire. How many people are jumping on the Church bandwagon now? That home run was off a lefty, mind you. Wright is going nuts this season. That's his second three RBI game of this very young season.
Castillo, Delgado and Angel Pagan each picked up two hits for team tonight. Pagan knocked one of the teams many doubles, driving in one run and scoring twice. Delgado also knocked in one run and scored two of his own. Castillo scored once. Brian Schneider drove in two runs and scored once. He picked up one hit and walked twice.
All the starters but Perez got a hit tonight and everyone was just stellar. Everyone contributed tonight. Good stuff. Very good stuff.
Game Ball: Perez, Wright, Beltran and my boy, Ryan Church.
