Mets Game 22: Win Over Phillies

Mets 7 Phillies 4

If the Mets didn’t pulverize Chan Ho Park and take this game, I would have posted the panic button.

The Mets started pounding Park in the first frame, and kept on pounding.

It began with a Danny Murphy two-run homer, and continued with another two scores in the second, another in the third, and another pair in the fifth. Three of those five runs came on sacrifice flies, and two of them were driven in by Mike Pelfrey, of all people.

Pelfrey protected his big lead well enough on the mound, allowing 7 hits, 4 walks, and 3 runs in 5 1/3, striking out none and throwing 104 pitches.

This was a game the Mets HAD to have, and they got it.

Game Notes

Joe Torre really must be a genius, because he squeezed remarkable efficiency out of Park last year in a long relief role.

When Mike Pelfrey is hitting you, you know it’s time to hang them up. Even when Pelfrey made outs against Park, they were hard-hit balls. Yikes, Chan-Ho.

Big Pelf was slightly disappointing in that he nearly allowed the Phillies to get back in the game, big lead and all. With a five-run lead in the third, he walked two batters and threw the ball away on an attempted pickoff at first. Dude, when you’re up five, forget the runner at first, and throw that four-seamer over the plate!

Pelfrey’s inefficiency in the third and subsequent innings unnecessarily ran up his pitch count. He was up to 95 after five frames.

The Met escaped disaster in the sixth, when with one out and runners on first and second, Jose Reyes fielded a ground ball and threw the ball away trying to force Chris Coste at third base. Coste could have scored, but held up, and the following runner Greg Dobbs kept going to third. Coste had no recourse but to race for home and was thrown out easily. Had that baserunning snafu not occurred, it might have been a long sixth.

Keith Hernandez analyzed David Wright’s slump, and was so darn close to identifying Wright’s problem but just fell short. As Keith mentioned, it does have to do with Wright’s over-rotation as the pitch is coming in. But the problem is not that he’s too slow to bring them back around. Rather, it is simple physics: “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”. In other words, when you over-rotate one way, you’ll over-rotate the other way as a natural progression. Wright is not too slow, he is too quick … well, at least, his hips are too quick to open. It’s actually the same exact issue that John Maine (and often, Ollie Perez) struggles with on the mound.

“But why should I listen to you and not Keith Hernandez? You’re a dumb blogger and Keith was a career .300 hitter and borderline Hall of Famer!”

It’s not my theory, it’s a law laid down by Sir Isaac Newton, who is in the Hall of Fame of the human race.

Over-rotation or not, Wright had two hits on the day, as did Fernando Tatis.

In his first at-bat since June 13, 2006, Pedro Feliciano drew a 4-pitch walk. Not one of the pitches was even close. Charlie Manuel must have gone through four rolls of Rolaids.

Feliciano threw 18 pitches in his 1 2/3 inning stint. Frankie Rodriguez threw 24 en route to his fifth save.

Rodriguez is on pace to save 29 games in the month of May.

Next Mets Game

Mets and Phillies go at it again at 3:40 PM. Oliver Perez goes against Jamie Moyer. The game will be shown on FOX. Yee ha. Let’s hope the mute button still works.