The score tonight at the end of 11 innings tonight was Omir Santos 2 – Florida Marlins 1. Santos knocked in both of the Mets runs in the extra inning victory, en route to their 4th win in a row. The first came on a solo home run in the 5th to tie the game at 1, the 2nd on a single in the bottom of the 11th that scored Gary Sheffield who led off the inning with a single, and then forced a bad throw trying to steal second leaving him at 3rd as the winning run with 1 out. Fernando Tatis was hit by a pitch and Santos delivered to end the game. This was a statement for Omir, cementing his spot as the 25th man on the roster with Brian Schneider returning to the team tomorrow. The Mets rewarded him for his tremendous effort after the game, by immediately trading Ramon Castro to the White Sox.
Mike Pelfrey put in his best effort of the season to date. He went 7 2/3 innings only giving up 1 run on 5 hits while striking out 6 for the 2nd consecutive game. Pelfrey has seemed to find some comfort throwing his secondary pitches, and it’s made him noticeably more effective, especially when it comes to striking out batters. Bobby Parnell finished off the 8th, Frankie Rodriguez pitched the 9th, JJ Putz pitched the 10th and 2/3 of the 11th, and Pedro Feliciano came in to get the last out the Mets would need picking up the win.
David Wright struggled at the plate again tonight, striking out in a key moment in the 8th that could have kept the game out of extra innings, when he came up with 1 out and the bases loaded. Wright has now struck out in 11 of his last 25 plate appearances, so it seems that he’s cooled off considerably from where he was on the last road trip. Maybe the Mets should fly him out to the West Coast where he seems to have left his swing.
Gary Sheffield was in the middle of everything again tonight, somewhere Gary has been finding himself a lot in recent times. I owe Shef a written apology and he’ll get it soon enough. Until he shows me differently, I’m going to credit him as being one of the most valuable players the Mets have on their roster this year, and they got him for chump change. Maybe with my apology, I will start a charity for Gary, to get his salary up to something more in line with his production for the team.
John Maine looks to follow up on his last strong effort tomorrow. Brian Schneider will likely get the start in the day game after a night game. Hopefully Daniel Murphy will get the start too. I don’t understand Jerry Manuel’s logic for not starting him tonight after his break out game on Wednesday night. That would be number 8275 on the list of things I haven’t understood when it comes to Jerry Manuel, but it’s hard to argue with the manager of a first place team using reserves to get through every game.
Let’s Go Mets!
