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The Mets (70–57) defeated the Braves (56–71) by the score of 6 to 3 tonight in Shea Stadium.
For a recap, boxscore, stats, etc., go to SNY.tv.
I can’t believe I am actually writing this but Mike Pelfrey now leads the team with 12 wins following the first complete game of his career.
Big Pelf was solid and if 3 is your favorite number, take a look at his line: 3 hits, 3 runs, 3 walks and 3 strikeouts.
As far as the offense goes, what else can you say about Daniel Murphy who clearly meant business in the bottom of the 1st inning with a two out, two run single.
Later in the frame, the Mets tacked on three more runs with the help of a Chipper Jones throwing error, followed by a Pelfrey RBI single.
The Mets now have scored a MLB-leading 103 runs in the 1st inning and have scored first in 83 out of 127 games this season.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, David Wright took out a maple 9-iron and launched one over the fence for his 24th home run.
This was one of the more well-balanced games the Mets have played all season with outstanding pitching, timely hitting and solid defense – and it feels even better against the Braves!
And by the way, I finally get to write a “happy recap!”
Pedro Martinez (4-3, 4.96 ERA) and the Mets look to sweep the series tomorrow night when they welcome Mike Hampton (no, that is not a typo) back to New York, starting at 7pm.
BIG PELF!!!!!!!
Let’s sweep these MF’ers tomorrow night!!!
Great start by Pelfrey – worked out of trouble a couple of times, Manuel and Warthen showed confidence in him even though the temporary loss of control (walks, HBP), and he turns around to retire the last 11? Reason for a big, happy exhale.
Noe let’s get Pedro some run support versus Hampton, and see that our bullpen doesn’t falter for him.
Let’s Go Mets!
108 pitches through 9 innings. John Maine, I hope you were watching.
Maybe no one told Maine that less pitches is better. He is there saying “I could have done 108 pitches in 5 innings easy, maybe 4…”
Maine seriously needs one moe pitch. Besides being wild, he just has too many foul balls — needs something to change batters timing or eye level or something.
He has had control problems in his two starts since he came off the DL but, usually, his problem is just too many foul balls. I once heard him say that he needs another pitch–possibly a two-seamer–to get batters to put balls in play much earlier in at-bats, but that obviously has not happened, yet. It either needs to happen, or he needs to learn how to pitch 130 pitches a game and still not wear down during the season.
Maine is more of a high fastball pitcher and that’s where batters are late enough to foul pitches off in the air. Maine doesn’t have a sinking fastball like Pelfrey or something hitters will swing at to quickly put the ball in play. A 2 seamer would help out alot but I am not sure if his sore shoulder can handle another pitch at this point.
Nice recap Brandon, and a very important CG by Pelf with Pedro on the mound tomorrow. Would like to see a sweep in advance of the Houston series, and with Philly beating up on the Nats, we will need some wins this week for sure.
Geez, only 35 to go and we are 13 gms over .500. Who would have thought this two months ago?
Thank you!
Brandon,
I think this is your calling, doing the postgame… great job
Anyway, great game by big pelf!
BRING THE BROOOOOOOOOMS
Thank you … SWEEEEEEP!
If the bullpen was better, this team would be better
than the ‘06 mets. Hopefully Ayala or Reyes turn out to
be lightning in a bottle. Otherwise we’re gonna have a heart attack in September.
Perhaps, but we’ll have a lot more heart with which to avoid the attack. That’s what’s making this team so good!
I think the bullpen will improve, if only because I don’t think it can be worse. I think the Starters have really stepped up and helped keep Manuel from overworking the bullpen, and hopefully this will be a mini-break for them so they can fight through the next 10 days, and at least there will be more arms up here then.
I agree with you, yet, I can’t help but worry that the starters might wear down from overuse now. Maybe not Johan, but there was already reason for concern with Pelf, since he is in a new territory now.
But, hey…we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now, I’m going to enjoy the great win!
yeah.. very nice postgame brandon. best ive read here in a bit.
Whoo…what a great game. First game I’ve been to this year where the Mets won and it turns out to be MIke Pelfrey’s first complete game. I think everyone in the stadium was relieved/excited to see Pelfrey come out for the 9th inning. No bullpen to blow the game tonight.
good job by Big Pelf. gave the bullpen rest for tomorrow with Pedro on the mound.
there’s nothing more satisfying (baseballwise) to see the maturation of a home grown talent. I think we all knew Pelfrey has the stuff to an ace, just didn’t expect him to turn it around so quick. Congrats Big Pelf!!! and nice job all around!!!
“I think we all knew Pelfrey has the stuff to an ace”
Really? I don’t think anyone knew that (myself and every pundit I heard included). He also still has another step to go before he is an “ace,” but his turnaround is amazing.
Miller and Morgan loved Pelfrey.
Everyone knew since he was drafted that he had ace stuff but never was able to harness it. What did you think Pelfrey was? A prospect because he was maxing out on his 5th starter ceiling?
Agreed, Flushing_is_Burning. I also worried that rushing him to the majors, and repeatedly sending him out there to get his butt whooped, might do irreversible damage, though I was optimistic that he’d eventually figure it out, if he was allowed to go down to the minors and work on things there. But, as it turned out, he didn’t need to go down to the minors. He figured it all out on the job, in the majors! Great job, Pelf!
I said last week that anything less than 7/10 in the Nats-Bucs-Braves series’ was unacceptable and would be the end of the Mets’ season. So far the Mets are 8/9. Not too shabby. Let’s finish it off tomorrow. Good to see these guys beating up on bad teams. Something they haven’t done much of at all this year.
If the Mets make it to the playoffs, look for them to follow the 2006 White Sox model of throwing long games by starters. Johann, Pelf and Ollie will be the starters in that order.
so it seems now. lotta season left.
and pedro will be 4…maine to the bullpen…i dont think they can go with a 3 man rotation, maybe in the first round but i think it will have to be 4
Pedro will pitch game two at Shea. Perez game 3 on the road, in my opinion.
I was thinking the exact same thing. Once the playoffs start, it’s a whole new animal. Push the starters for as long as necessary.
Why stop at the 2006 White Sox model? Let’s go with the Don Larsen model — starter throwing a perfect game would really help out our bullpen.
Not to mention the fans’ collective emotional state–this whole “no no-hitter” thing is a real downer! :)
why stop at Don Larsen…let’s go with the Christy Mathewson model, and just have Johan throw 3 complete game shutouts in 5 days!
Ok let’s not plan an early retirement for the Mets pitchers now. lol I know you are kidding but that just made my arm hurt. lol
With Castillo and Church due back this week, this team will be extremely deep for the home stretch.
Picking up another Reyes? Why the heck not…the first two have worked out pretty good. Any arm that can be added to this pen is a plus, and guy with closing exp. to boot.
Tthis team needs to stay hot through the end of next week and put some space between the Phils. Outside of two games with Mets, Phils have 8 games with Dodgers and Cubs after they are done swatting the Knats.
this team needs to stay hot untill november
that would help
OK, “maybealittlemoredelgado”…I can’t help but wonder if you had a different, more “anti-Delgado” name earlier in the season, before his resurgence. Am I right? If so, what was it? :)
I was there and it was electric. nobody expected Pelf to come out for the ninth and people were looking at the bullpen until Mike came out of the dugout.
I will now end the myth that the Phillies offense is much better than the Mets offense. Thus far in 2008, the Mets lead the Phillies in the following categories (Mets Rank in parenthesis):
Runs (2)
Hits (3)
Triples (2)
RBI (3)
Batting Avg (4)
OBP (4)
Phils are ahead in slugging, OPS (a few points more than the mets), HR, 2B’s and total bases.
yes, I dont get it. everyone around baseball talks about the phillies offense, but the mets offense is better. time to give some credit to our offense.
I’m not sure the Mets’ offense is better, but it is certainly comparable.
Also, when comparing the two teams’ stats, keep in mind that the Phils play in a Little League field, while the Mets play in a pitchers’ park.
Excellent point we should all not forget. What kind of numbers would DWight and Reyes have playing in that little league field?
But we also have to remember when evaluating the Phillies pitching staff the home park they pitch in. So it cuts both ways.
The Mets offense has been comparable because of the contributions of unexpected sources that the media does not take into account. Also perception many times does not equal reality. The Mets offense is better than it is perceived to be.
The only complaints about the Mets offense have been situational hitting and early game/late game splits.
I would definitely take the parks into account when evaluating the pitchers, too–it just wasnt the topic of discussion at the moment.
And very true about the perception of the Mets’ offense. Of course, the early game/late game split is a big concern–mostly because of the bullpen problems. The fact that the team has a hard time tacking on runs, usually, makes it that much harder on the bullpen…and that much harder to overcome one of the bullpen’s implosions. Hopefully both the late game hitting and bullpen problems will be solved sooner than later.
It’s gonna be a dog fight.
This bullpen situation is going to be a major issue
the rest of the way, unless we pitch a complete game every night.
the finger nails are gone already. Al reyes is not going
to put me in the rocking chair.
LETS WIN A PENNANT RACE FOR ONCE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anyone mention how Cerrone was talking about Pelf taking BP earlier today in a post then he comes through with an RBI single in the game?
Not sure if anyone mentioned it in the game thread, but that was the first thing I thought about when Big Pelf got the hit.
I was just thinking he ought to steal second third and home. You know, like they do it T-ball.
ha
same with me – cerrone called it. NICE win! It feels so good to beat up on the braves – I was hoping we would put up a real laugher. But a great win indeed and so nice to see Pelf step it up another notch. We look good coming down the stretch
Was at the game tonight..we played great.
Dan Murphy is a stud.
bring out the brooms
What position did you play?
Matt copyright infringement on thehappyrecap.com :D
Big Pelf is the man indeed, everyone worries about him reaching a maximum inning point of his career, when he seems to get stronger with every outing.
Gee, I wonder how Hampton’s kids like the Atlanta school system?