Mets 7 – Pirates 3 May 8, 2009

Jonathan Niese did a great job in his season debut starting for Oliver Perez tonight. He got a quality start going 6 innings giving up 2 runs on  7 hits and no walks with 5 strikeouts. The bullpen came in and held the Pirates down until J.J. Putz allowed 1 run in the bottom of the ninth.

The offensive star of the game was definitely Carlos Delgado. He was 3 for 4 with 5 RBI’s and a home run.

The defense was a little questionable for the Mets tonight. Jose Reyes had an error in the game. But Carlos Beltran booted one that wasn’t an error and he and Ryan Church let one drop that they lost in the lights.

The Mets win their fifth straight game and are starting to look like the team that we expected to see at the beginning of the season.

Yahoo Sports
Yahoo Sports

Mets 7- Phillies 5 May 7, 2009

The Mets got another 2-game series sweep for their fourth win in a row. Most of this win was thanks to Jamie Moyer would had nothing tonight. He gave up 2-run homers to Carlos Beltran and David Wright in the first inning and 7 runs in his 2.1 innings of work.

Mike Pelfrey had a pretty good game tonight getting through 7 innings and giving up 3 runs. Oddly, he didn’t have any strikeouts for the second consecutive start.

Jerry Manuel was thrown out of the game after arguing a call made on a run-down play. Shane Victorino was in a run-down and stuck out his arm to get contact with Jose Reyes. The first base umpire called obstruction and awarded Victorino second base. It was bad call. Manuel might get a suspension though as he bumped hats with the umpire. That contact could get him a game or two suspension.

A very good sign tonight was that Wright 3 for 3 with 2 runs and 2 RBI’s and a walk. His home run was a straight away bomb to center field that landed right next to the apple. Hopefully, he can start something with the bat. He looked better tonight hitting than I’ve seen him in quite a while.

Click for recap/box score
Click for recap/box score

Mets 1- Phillies 0 May 6, 2009

Johan Santana. What more can you say? This guy is unbelievable.  Tonight he went 7 innings giving up only 2 hits and 3 walks and had 10 strikeouts. His season ERA is down to 0.91 now.

The Mets only got 2 hits in the game. They scored the only run of the game in the seventh innings. Carlos Delgado walked and Fernando Tatis had an infield single that Pedro Feliz threw away into right field. Delgado chugged all the way around from first base to score. He ran threw a Razor http://www.besttramadolonlinestore.com Shines stop sign to score as well.

It seems like Tatis is in the middle of something positive for the Mets every time he gets into a game. This is a continuation of last season. He just seems to have a knack for doing something good for the team.

I should also mention that Chan Ho Park was also outstanding tonight for the Phillies. He went 6 innings giving up only 1 hit.

5609
Click for full box score

Mets 4- Braves 3 May 5, 2009

The Mets complete the 2-game sweep of the Braves in Atlanta tonight. That was a close one that shouldn’t have been as close as it was. Livan Hernandez was outstanding tonight going 6.1 innings giving up only 1 run. He only threw 74 pitches on the night. It was a really good game for him. He had a nice sacrifice bunt and threw out a runner at third as well. Great game for him.

David Wright had two hits again tonight but still looks like he has a wicked upper cut to me. But if he can keep hitting I guess it really doesn’t matter. Ramon Castro was 3 for 5 with 2 doubles and an RBI. He’s been making a case to get the bulk of the playing time at catcher until Brian Schneider gets back from the disabled list.

The real fun came at the end of the game. Carlos Delgado had a nice 2 RBI single with the bases loaded to make the score 4-1. It turned out that they needed those runs. Delgado dropped a routine pop up with 2 outs and 2 runners on. That kept the inning alive and the Braves scored two runs off Francisco Rodriguez. But it wasn’t enough to avoid the sweep as the Mets were able to get out of the jam.

Click for Yahoo Sports box score
Click for Yahoo Sports box score

Mets 6- Braves 4 May 4, 2009

Carlos Beltran hit two long homers to center field in the sixth and seventh innings to put this one away for the Mets. David Wright also homered in the sixth and was 2 for 4 on the night, which is great to see him get something going offensively.

John Maine was solid except for a meltdown in the second inning. He walked 3 and they all came around to score. But he recovered to pitch 6 innings, only giving up the 3 runs and he got the win. He ended up with 7 K’s and 6 walks. It was too many walks but his velocity and location was pretty good for much of the night.

J.J. Putz did give up 2 hits in the eighth including a solo homer to Chipper Jones. That raises his ERA to 3.60. I expected him to be more dominating than he has been. We’ll have to keep an eye on him as the season goes on.

Box score

5409

Phillies 6- Mets 5 May 2, 2009

Oliver Perez pitched another complete disaster and couldn’t even make it out of the third inning, and that wasn’t even the worst part of this game. If you’re a Mets fan and didn’t get a chance to watch this game because you were enjoying a nice May Saturday afternoon, you may want to stop reading now to keep from tossing your cookies. Perez’ line was 2.1 innings giving up 4 runs on 5 hits and 6 walks. He was even doing some kind of new pause in his delivery that we haven’t seen before. Perez has absolutely no idea what to do right now.

What I did like about the Mets is that they were down 4-2 and came back to score 3 runs in the sixth inning. That’s a good sign because they haven’t done much coming back this season. Carlos Beltran and Ramon Castro had two hits apiece, and Castro and Daniel Murphy homered in the game.

The devastating part of the game came when the Phillies scored one to tie in the bottom of the sixth inning. Both teams couldn’t get a rally going and went to the tenth inning. Sean Green was in for the Mets and struggling badly. He loaded the bases and ended up walking Shane Victorino to score the winning run. What an awful way to lose a game, especially to the Phillies. As reader TD noted, Green did a great impression of Aaron Heilman. I was surprised that Jerry Manuel stuck with Green through the inning even though he was wild, walking two hitters. I would have pulled him for Brian Stokes. Both Stokes and Francisco Rodriguez were still available to pitch. Another ugly loss.

Box score

52091

Mets 7- Phillies 4 May 1, 2009

I didn’t particularly like what I saw from Mike Pelfrey tonight but he did enough to win. He went 5.1 innings giving up 3 runs, but I didn’t like that he had 4 walks and 0 strikeouts. I also didn’t like that he had 104 pitches in 5.1 innings. He was actually better at the plate than on the mound. He was 1 for 2 with 2 RBI’s.

On offense Daniel Murphy got things going in the first inning with a 2-run homer off Chan Ho Park. The Mets were beneficiaries of 8 walks from Phillies pitchers on the night. A good sign was that David Wright was 2 for 4 with a double, an RBI, and a walk. He needed a night like that badly. Of course, Fernando Tatis was 2 for 4 with 2 runs scored. He just keeps on hitting in a tough role of not getting regular playing time. He looks pretty comfortable at first base too.

Once again, the Mets didn’t score runs late in the game. They didn’t score a run after the fifth. That’s been a recurring theme this season but it didn’t come back to bite them tonight.

The Mets get the important first game of the series in Philly. Tomorrow’s game is the Fox game of the week.

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Scoreboard
N.Y. Mets (10-12) « 2 2 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 7 9 2
Philadelphia (11-10) 0 0 3 0 0 0 1 0 0 4 8 1
Players of the Game
Philadelphia
R. Ibanez AB 4
R 0
H 1
HR 0
RBI 2
New York
M. Pelfrey IP 5.1
H 7
ER 3
BB 4
K 0
New York Mets
Jose B. Reyes, SS 4 0 0 1 0 0 4 .272
Alex Cora, 2B 4 1 1 0 1 1 0 .240
Daniel Murphy, LF 5 1 1 2 0 0 1 .315
Carlos Beltran, CF 2 2 1 0 3 0 0 .390
David Wright, 3B 4 0 2 1 1 0 1 .291
Ryan Church, RF 5 0 0 0 0 1 5 .292
Fernando Tatis, 1B 4 2 2 0 1 0 1 .370
Omir Santos, C 2 1 1 1 1 0 1 .286
Mike Pelfrey, SP 2 0 1 2 0 0 2 .143
Pedro Feliciano, RP 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 .000
Totals 32 7 9 7 8 2 15
BATTING
2B – C Beltran (5); D Wright (5); F Tatis (2); O Santos (2)
HR – D Murphy (2)
RBI – J Reyes (8); D Murphy 2 (9); D Wright (9); O Santos (5); M Pelfrey 2 (2)
SF – J Reyes (1); O Santos (1); M Pelfrey (1)
BASERUNNING
SB – C Beltran (2)
CS – D Wright (3)
New York Mets
Mike Pelfrey (W,3-0) 5.1 7 3 3 4 0 0 6.00
Pedro Feliciano 1.2 1 1 1 0 2 1 4.00
J.J. Putz 1.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3.75
Francisco J. Rodriguez (S,5) 1.0 0 0 0 1 2 0 1.86
Philadelphia Phillies
Jimmy Rollins, SS 4 0 0 0 1 0 0 .198
Shane Victorino, CF 5 1 1 0 0 1 2 .281
Chase Utley, 2B 2 2 1 1 2 0 0 .347
Ryan Howard, 1B 4 0 1 0 1 1 3 .286
Jayson Werth, RF 3 1 0 0 1 1 3 .250
Raul Ibanez, LF 4 0 1 2 0 1 1 .354
Pedro Feliz, 3B 4 0 2 1 0 0 0 .333
Chris Coste, C 4 0 1 0 0 0 3 .182
Chan Ho Park, SP 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 .143
Greg Dobbs, PH-3B 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 .158
Miguel Cairo, PH-2B 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
Totals 34 4 8 4 5 4 13
BATTING
HR – C Utley (8)
RBI – C Utley (21); R Ibanez 2 (19); P Feliz (15)
BASERUNNING
CS – J Rollins (2)
Philadelphia Phillies
Chan Ho Park (L,0-1) 4.2 8 7 7 6 1 1 8.57
Chad Durbin 1.1 1 0 0 1 0 0 4.50
J.A. Happ 2.0 0 0 0 1 1 0 3.52
Clay Condrey 1.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1.38