More of this, please
Watching Tuesday night's game was eerie. The way that the Dodgers could only go station-to-station and failed to cash in runners on second and third with one away in the third reminded me of the 2009 Mets after injuries claimed Beltran, Reyes, Delgado, and basically the whole team. Even more hilarious was the fourth, where the Dodgers had a single, a double, a HBP and a walk and failed to score.
The beneficiary of this offensive ineptitude was Michael Pelfrey, the man Vin Scully dubbed "a gentle giant" because of his catch and release method fishing practices, (really a thing he talked about.) There are few Mets fans that would disagree that mental midget would be more appropriate, given Pelfrey's tendency to fall apart when the slightest thing goes awry. I was expecting a six-spot in the Dodgers second inning when Kemp reached on Ruben Tejada's error and stole second, but Pelfrey worked through it, just like in the fifth when, with a 2-0 lead he loaded the bases with two outs and allowed an absolute laser to Juan Uribe which, fortunately, was ticketed directly for Angel Pagan. I still say that against any semblance of an offense, Pelfrey would have allowed three or four runs tonight.
It doesn't happen often, but the Mets got all their runs from homers last night, including a two-run shot by Beltran in the fifth, and a sixth-inning solo and eight-inning three-run job from Jason Bay, who might be showing flashes of the player the Mets thought they were getting when they signed him in the winter of 2009. Since his June 28th game against the Tigers, when he ended the team's grand slam drought, he has pieced together an eight-game hitting streak with 12 RBI. If this is the sign that he's heating up, his timing couldn't be better, since the Mets are in the middle of the most critical stretch of the season, which will go a long way in determining whether the team will be dismantled or left alone for a Wild Card run. He has shown the ability to carry a team for weeks in the past, and if he's able to do so now, with Wright and Santana eying possible post-All Star Game returns, the next month could be VERY interesting.
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