That was a doozy.
Pitching Performance
Well, this was ugly all around. This totally destroys my theory of starting pitching and bullpen performance.
Mike Pelfrey allowed five runs on eight hits, through five innings of work. He walked two and struck out none. Through those five, he had to throw 96 pitches, so it was like he threw more innings.
Yuck.
And it was all downhill from here. Pelfrey was getting hit hard tonight. He just didn't have it. Not the time for the pitching to go into a slide.
From there, the bullpen took over and tried to give the game away, but the bats wanted nothing of it.
Aaron Heilman came out of the depths of the bullpen, and allowed a two-run home run to Christian Guzman. Joe Smith went long tonight, working one 1-3 innings, and eventually earning the win. He walked only one, while striking out one.
Smith has turned it on lately. That's two wins in two days for him, and three innings of scoreless baseball. Well done.
The day after I praise Brian Stokes, he allowed a three-run home run, again to Guzman. Stokes allowed two hits and walked one in his inning of work. Luis Ayala pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning to earn the save for the Mets in a very, very sloppy game.
Whew. Well, Stokes wasn't pretty, but his fastball was bound to get hit. Hard. Nice stuff from Ayala though.
Offensive Output
Where to start? 13 hits and 13 runs. I'm going to try and keep this brief.
In the first, almost like clockwork, the Mets got on the board. Carlos Beltran singled in David Wright and the Mets went up 1-0.
The third inning saw the Mets bat around and push six runs across. A Wright single drove in one, a Beltran double drove in another. Fernando Tatis shot a bases loaded two-run double to left, and Damion Easley capped it off with a two-run single.
And from there, the Mets looked like they were in for some smooth sailing. Unfortunately, they needed more runs, and a lot of them. Thankfully, the bats responded to the call.
In the bottom of the seventh, Beltran drove in Wright again, this time with a sac-fly. With the bases loaded, Beltran was able to scamper home on a wild pitch. Brian Schneider helped the team, ripping a single to left, driving in Tatis and Daniel Murphy.
Beltran and Wright were the stars tonight, and no, Delgado didn't hit two home runs.
In the eighth, Wright added to the Mets tally with a two-run blast to left center, plating Church.
Wow.
The Rest of the Story
Jose Reyes broke Mookie Wilson's franchise steal record, picking up two in the same inning. Keep running, Jose.
Wright: 4-4, BB, 3 RBI, 4 runs. Someone is getting hot.
Beltran: 3-5, 2 RBI, 2 runs.
Game Ball: David Wright.
