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May 21, 2011 Mets 2011 Games Josh Burton

Mets Game 44: Win Over Yankees

Mets 2 Nationals 1

Behind 6 strong innings from R.A. Dickey and 3 shutout ones from the Mets bullpen including Michael O’Connor, Jason Isringhausen, and K-Rod for the save, the Mets shutdown the Yankees and won the first game of a three game weekend set with their crosstown rivals.

Mets Games Notes

As mentioned before, The Mets’ pitching was the real story tonight with R.A. Dickey pitching well for the first time in a couple of starts to get the win. The bullpen has also been shutting-down all other teams as of late and tonight they compiled 5 strikeouts in 3 perfect innings. Mike O’Connor still hasn’t given up a run in his current stint with the Mets.

With his 1-2-3 9th inning tonight, Francisco Rodriguez earned his 15th straight save of the season and it was also his 19th scoreless inning in a row.

The Mets’ bats didn’t do much against Freddy Garcia but surprise surprise, their first run was scored on a double, hit by no other than Justin Turner in the 4th which plated Fernando Martinez from second to tie up the game at 1-1. This means that Turner has driven in 11 of the Mets’ last 17 runs. Pretty good for a guy who started off the year in Buffalo, right?

The winning run of the game came on a Daniel Murphy solo home run to right field of Yankee Stadium in the 6th. This shot hopefully broke Murphy out of his extended slump because the Mets need him to continue to hit if they want to keep winning with this patchwork lineup.

The only run Dickey and the team gave up today to the Yankees was a Mark Teixeira solo home run in the 3rd. His high pop-up managed to just scrape over the right field fence a mere 314 ft from home plate. At Citi Field his home run would’ve been an easy can of corn fly-out. Definitely why Curtis Granderson has 14 home runs this year.

This win gets the Mets to 22 and 22 on the year. Getting to .500 seemed like an impossibility back in April when the team started off the 2011 season with a 5-13 record. This comeback is something to say for Terry Collins idea of changing the losing culture that has surrounded the Mets seemingly since the collapse of 2007. It’s a long way from making the playoffs, but you always have to start somewhere.

Next Mets Game

Lefty Chris Capuano goes for the Mets on Saturday night against Yankees’ right-hander A.J. Burnett at 7:10 pm on FOX.

Josh Burton is a student at Lynbrook High School on Long Island in New York. He enjoys writing about his favorite sports teams like the Mets, New Jersey Nets, and others. Josh has been a Mets fan since birth and has stuck with the team through the highs of the Bobby Valentine and Willie Randolph managerialships and the lows of the Art Howe and Jerry Manuel managerialships; of course the jury is still out on Terry Collins. His one dream with the New York Mets is to personally witness a World Series Championship in his lifetime. Ya Gotta Believe!
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  1. gary s. May 21, 2011 at 7:41 am
    One run in last 3 games allowed..Just shows the value of strong pitching.Even a medicore team like the mets with 3 starters on the dl, can win games.that said, pelf will probably get tattooed today.Curious to see who catches him today.Has pitched much better with Paulino behind dish
    • Josh Burton May 21, 2011 at 12:25 pm
      I agree. Paulino should be getting most of the starts from now on and we can be successful playing like the padres with strong pitching and ok not great hitting.
  2. Mic May 21, 2011 at 9:59 am
    1. Pitching. Earlier I was critical of Dan warthen. But Niese, cappy and gee (3-0) have led the way and now pelfrey and RA are improving. Add to that izzy, bucholtz, Beato and Krod shave also been water tight with contributions from Tim byrdak…..nice

    2. DW going down a blessing? Justin turner has been a thunderbolt to this offense. First pride eclipsed pagan now turner has effectively replaced the unreplaceable… Even if only temporarily. Pagan is due back Sunday, effectively replacing fmart. I hope he starts as per last 3 seasons as a 4 th ofer until he gets hotter.

    3. Beltran is back to being Beltran. Reyes is Reyes again.