MVN - Most Valuable Network

Recap: Mets Turn Blowout Into Nail-Biter, Win 10-9

When Pedro Martinez left the game in the 6th inning, he was all smiles with a 10-2 lead as Mets fans were giving him an ovation in Philly. A little over an hour later, the Phils were 1 swing away from handing the Amazins arguably their worst regular season loss in franchise history. But Jayson Werth popped up to right off Billy Wagner as the winning run to end a ridiculous game and an insane series.

But before Philly had every Mets fan praying on their knees it was all Metropolitans. David Wright went 2-5 with 4 RBI and a solo homerun, Endy Chavez, Fernando Tatis, and Damion Easley each collected 3 hits, and overall the team poured in 17 basehits. The Mets scored 2 runs in the 1st, and then 3 each in both the 2nd and 3rd innings to break the game open early. Even Pedro got into the act, going 1-4 with an RBI single that gave the Mets a 10-1 lead.

But much more important than Martinez’s bat was his arm, and for the 1st time in quite a while that looked just fine as well. Pedro improved to 3-2, getting his 1st win since June 15. He struck out 6 Phillies in 5 1/3 innings, and allowed 5 hits and 2 runs. Both of those runs came off solo homers, one to Chase Utley and one to Pat Burrell.

Pedro exited and gave way to Tony Armas in the 6th with a 10-2 lead, but he and the entire Mets-nation had to sweat it out right until the very end. The Phillies scored 3 in the 7th and 2 in the 8th, led by homeruns from Ryan Howard and Geoff Jenkins. The 2-run moon-shot by Jenkins in the 8th made it 10-7, and amazingly broke a 2-40 slump for the struggling lefty.

What was once a blowout turned into a save opportunity for Billy Wagner, and luckily for him Utley had been taken out of the game already. He faced the heart of the order (minus the NL’s homerun leader), and Shane Victorino led off the 9th with a double down the left field line (Yes, the same Victorino who led off Monday’s 9th inning with a hit). Eric Bruntlett (Utley’s replacement) walked, and all of a sudden with no outs the tying run came to the plate in former MVP Ryan Howard. Wagner settled down to strike him out and get Burrell on a pop up. But of course Billy had to put one more scare in us, by giving up an RBI single to Pedro Feliz. And when Carlos Beltran inexplicably threw to 3rd and it got away, Bruntlett got up and scored making it 10-9. More importantly though, Feliz moved up to 2nd and the Phillies were a single away from tying the game. That’s when Wagner got the final out and Werth flew out to Endy Chavez. Gary Cohen ended the craziness by appropriately channeling the late Bob Murphy’s famous quote “They win the damn thing’ 10-9!”

I could not have said it any better myself…

Rizzi’s Rant:

It just keeps getting more and more ridiculous by the day. Every single game the Mets find a new way to make you pull your hair out, pee your pants, and bawl like a baby all at the same time. And yet, while I sit here typing angrily… the Mets WON the game, they WON the 4 game series from Philly, and they are now just 2.5 games out of 1st place! So why the heck am I so ticked off???

Good job by Pedro tonight, there is no way we win the division without him pitching well, so this was a very encouraging start.

Great job by the offense tonight, even though they fizzled out at the end against the bullpen. Damion Easley is on fire, and I don’t want to even discuss Luis Castillo until he cools down.

I was all ready to talk about how great the end to this road trip was, and how it can really propel us to a big homestand against weak teams. But after that near-nightmare, I am out of gas and mentally spent. I have a sore throat and a bad cough, so I am hitting the sack. Tomorrow I will go into work and laugh about this one with my friends. But right now I am flabbergasted. What a freakin’ season…

This entry was posted on Monday, July 7th, 2008 at 7:09 pm and is filed under Geoff Jenkins, Endy Chavez, Jayson Werth, Shane Victorino, Damion Easley, Gary Cohen, Fernando Tatis, Rizzi's Rant, Carlos Beltran, Pedro Martinez, Pedro Feliz, Tony Armas, Chase Utley, David Wright, Adam Eaton, Billy Wagner, Pat Burrell, Ryan Howard, 7 Train. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.