Mets Game 114: Win Over Padres

Mets 9 Padres 8

The Mets pitchers did everything they could to give the game to the Padres, but those gosh-darn Mets hitters insisted on winning the game. Many thanks to former Met Heath Bell for making this victory possible.

Mets Game Notes

Kind of a disappointing performance from Mike Pelfrey. It wasn’t a terrible outing by any means, but it wasn’t great and further, he lost a three-run lead that his offense had given him. Pelfrey allowed 4 runs on 9 hits and 2 walks through 6 1/3 innings. Again, not bad, not great, but from Mike Pelfrey we hope for so much more. Maybe it’s just me, but one of these days I’d really like to see Pelfrey turn nasty, plow through the opposition, and take a victory. Unfortunately I don’t think he has the demeanor — the “killer instinct” to take full advantage of his god-given physical skills. Sad.

As disappointing as Pelfrey was, the bullpen was even worse — Ryota Igarashi in particular, who did not look confident nor comfortable during his one-inning stint. He nearly threw away an easy bunt play, and after blowing a 93-MPH fastball by Will Venable to get to a 2-2 count, inexplicably decided to throw him offspeed junk (and wound up walking him). The fastball is your friend, Iggy!

But hey, the Mets won, in dramatic fashion, so we should focus on the positive, right? Such as the fact Lucas Duda collected his first MLB walkoff hit, and went 3-for-5 with 2 RBI? Or that the Mets ditched their small ball strategy for long-ball in the first three innings?

Queens native Mike Baxter hit the first pitch he saw as a Met and turned it into an RBI double. In truth, it probably should have been scored a two-base error on Kyle Blanks, who did his best impression of Wily Mo Pena in completely misjudging the fly ball. But hey, Baxter is a hometown kid, and it’s a feel-good story, so let’s not split hairs. Congrats to Baxter; looking forward to seeing more from him.

On another positive note, Jason Bay stayed hot, hitting his ninth homer of the season and 200th of his career. With the blast he joins Larry Walker and Matt Stairs as the only Canadians (not to be confused with Canadiens) to hit 200 HRs.

Next Mets Game

The Mets and Padres do it again on Tuesday night at 7:10 PM. Chris Capuano goes to the hill against Wade LeBlanc.