Lost in the shuffle of Carlos Delgado's clutch hit, the Mets beating the Phillies, and the team taking over sole position of first place, is the performance from Oliver Perez yesterday.Perez threw 7 2-3 innings. He scattered six hits, one of which went for a solo home run, the only run he allowed all day. Perez walked only one batter, and it was an intentional walk. Perez also struck out 12 batters yesterday, fooling Chase Utley and Ryan Howard three times apiece.
Perez has absolutely turned it on the last few starts. Since June 29th against the New York Yankees, Perez has thrown 33 2-3 innings, allowing 21 hits, and allowing only five earned runs to score. He has walked 12 in that span, while striking out 39.
All this time I thought that if Rick Peterson left the team (fired, quit, signed elsewhere) and Oliver Perez was still around, he would fall flat on his face without the Jacket looking over him. I couldn't have been more wrong. Perez and Peterson come from two different school's of thought.
Peterson wanted to analyze everything about Perez, break him down piece by piece and reconstruct him. Now, Dan Warthen seems to let Ollie be Ollie, and just throw the ball. If there are errors or hitches in his delivery, Warthen will say something, but for the most part, it's Oliver Perez on the mound, by himself.
Let's hope Perez can keep this up, and maybe we'll be seeing him in the orange and blue for many years to come.