And the Mets went quietly into that good night.
Pitching Performance
The final three games are crucial. Mike Pelfrey put in a decent bid, but the Mets bats just weren't there. Pelfrey threw six innings, allowed eight hits. He surrendered three runs, bookend style. He let up two runs in the first, and another in the sixth, that one on a solo home run by Josh Willingham.
Pelfrey walked none and struck out three. Unfortunately, he needed 112 pitches to get through the six, and was unable to continue beyond that, though there were signs of fatigue.
Good, not great. He's getting up there in innings, crossing the 200 mark tonight, but this was a pretty good start from Pelfrey. Nothing great, but not awful.
Bobby Parnell started the seventh, and ended up allowing two earned runs, and left the game without recording an out. Pedro Feliciano also pitched in the seventh, and also recorded no outs. Aaron Heilman pitched 2-3 of an inning, walking two, but allowing no runs of his own to score. Joe Smith finished out the seventh.
When it takes four pitchers to get out of an inning, and two of them didn't record outs, that's never a good sign.
Brian Stokes pitched the eighth, allowing one run on two hits. Scott Schoeneweis finished out the inning with a strikeout. Nelson Figueroa pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning.
It didn't even matter. The Mets bats were quiet as a mouse.
Offensive Output
The Mets loaded the bases in the first, and failed to score. They got two runners on in the second, and failed to score. The Mets had two more on the pond in the third, and failed to score.
They weren't able to scratch one across until the sixth inning, when Brian Schneider hit into a fielders choice, allowing Ryan Church to score from third base.
That's it. That was all they could do tonight. Awful.
Does this team even deserve to make the playoffs? I'm not so sure.
The Rest of the Story
Phillies won. Two games back.
Milwaukee is winning. Could be one back in the Wild Card by nights end.
Game Ball: I'm going to have to say Ramon Martinez. 1-3, 2B, BB. A few nice plays in the field.
