Mets Game 62: Win Over Rays

Mets 11 Rays 2

The Mets beat up on a club from the AL Beast.

Mets Game Notes

Who could have predicted that the Mets would score their highest number of runs all year against the best pitching in baseball? Yet, they did it, and the feat becomes more remarkable when you consider the offensive onslaught was led by rookie Jordany Valdespin (4 RBI) and the man who has yet to hit his weight, Ike Davis (3 RBI). Often, surprises are the sweetest experiences in life.

Also surprising was the performance of Chris Young, who barely threw hard enough to break a pane of glass yet somehow managed to allow only two runs in 5 2/3 innings. I say “only” because it seemed as though he might give up at least four or five in the initial inning, when the Rays had him on the ropes. However, Young set up a few mirrors in strategic places, dropped a smoke bomb, and next thing you knew he was out of the inning allowing only two Rays to cross the plate. As it turned out, those were the first and last fish to be plated — hold the tartar sauce, please.

Looking again at Young’s line I have to shake my head, because he gave up 11 baserunners in his 5 2/3, there were no double plays, and still he allowed only 2 runs. How does that happen?

Ike Davis blasted a three-run homer into the right-field stands and dropped a bunt against the shift to go 2-for-4 and raise his average to a whopping .174. Is this bomb, combined with his small successes of the past week, a sign that he’s on his way back? I’m really not sure — I’m tepid on him right now, mainly because the homer was a change-up jerked over the right-field fence and the other time he swung and made contact, he rolled a grounder to second base. In other words, he’s still pulling the ball, and way ahead of pitches. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, depending on what you expect of Ike Davis. If you look at him as you might Carlos Pena or Adam Dunn, then he’s doing OK. But if you think he should be a more complete hitter, who can hit for a .280+ average and do more than walk, strike out, or hit a homer, then you may be disappointed.

Happily, it was the opposing team’s defense that made miscues for once, though there were a few misplayed balls by the Mets that weren’t charged as errors by a generous official scorer.

And if the offensive outburst, Young’s performance, and the lack of errors weren’t enough of a surprise, the cherry on top of this ballgame was that the bullpen gave up zero runs on zero hits.

Next Mets Game

The Mets and Rays do it again on Wednesday night at 7:10 p.m. The win leaders in each league go head-to-head as R.A. Dickey faces David Price. Will one of them emerge with ten wins?