I’ll go with Michael Corleone…
The Mets could have laid down and died yesterday. The news that Carlos Beltran is the latest addition to the $67 million disabled list was enough to put everyone over the top. When I got to the stadium and saw the starting line up, I considered getting back on the train and going home. Much to my surprise, the Mets put in one of their best performances of the year so far, getting contributions from everyone to come away with a 6-4 victory.
Almost a month ago to the day, I said that I thought Alex Cora played a bigger part in the team’s success than anyone gave him credit for. It seems that Alex is proving my point night in and night out. A fan sitting next to me yesterday, summed it up very well. He said, “You’re not going to get anything sexy out of Alex Cora, just a solid baseball player”. A solid baseball player is exactly what this team needs right now. Cora is doing a wonderful job filling in both defensively, and in the lead off spot for the injured Jose Reyes. The fact that there is no timetable for Reyes’ return is a little easier to deal with because of Cora’s strong performance. He’s got an OBP of .387 which is third on what’s left of the team. It always seems that Cora runs a deep count at the plate, forcing the pitcher to throw a lot of pitches. He’s averaging 4.24 pitches per plate appearance, he almost never strikes out, making contact with 91% of the strikes thrown his way. He is in every aspect of his approach at the plate, a professional hitter.
Tim Redding was the real story last night. He was pitching for his job, and it showed. He picked up his first win as a Met, pitching into the eight inning giving up 4 runs. 4 runs from Redding is good enough for me. If he can perform like that on a consistent basis, he may well keep his spot, although Fernando Nieve has made a good play for it. Combine Redding’s solid effort with timely hitting from guys like Luis Castillo, Omir Santos, and Daniel Murphy, and the Mets took care of business. After scoring two runs in the 1st inning, I thought we wouldn’t see any more runs, but the Mets tacked on runs in the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 8th innings to stay ahead and eventually win.
Brian Stokes wins the Degree All In award for the night, getting Albert Pujols, the go ahead run at the plate, to tap into an inning ending double play after keeping him off balance for the entire at bat with breaking balls. The bullpen as a whole put in a solid effort. The best part of the night was that guys like Pedro Feliciano, Sean Green, and Bobby Parnell got a much needed night off. Frankie Rodriguez pitched a perfect 9th to seal the deal and move the Mets a mere game and a half out of first place after a terrible stretch of baseball.
Should Jeremy Reed be the starting center fielder by default with Carlos Beltran out, or would you like to see Fernand-ez (when you have three players named Fernando on your team, you need to think of a nickname) get the starts with Reed coming in to play left late in games?
I’ll be at the game again tonight. Let’s Go Mets!
Does anyone else think that Razor Shines needs to go NOW. Last night was almost comical. Sending those two guys home last night was a joke..they were both out by 10 feet with a somewhat decent throw (or decent umpire).
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