If you have a life and therefore missed hearing me on “Live From Mickey Mantle’s” on Friday night, then be sure to download the show and listen to it at your leisure. For example, offload it to your iPod and listen to it as background noise while on the treadmill, or during a long car ride.

You can listen or download the shows (there are two episodes, we covered the Mets / NL East in episode 1) by going here or by clicking the Blog Talk Radio button to the right.

Mets 3 Marlins 0

Once again, the Mets needed a big-time effort from Oliver Perez. And once again, Ollie delivered.

Perez pitched seven strong innings, allowing no runs, only two hits, and three walks, striking out 8 in a heroic 120-pitch effort. I’m convinced that Ollie pitches purely on emotion, competitiveness, and guts, with everything else going out the window. He’s risen to the occasion since the moment he arrived in 2006, and continues to dominate in “big” games. That said, the exit of the cerebral Rick Peterson was the best thing to happen to Ollie — at least in the short term.

With that kind of effort on the mound, the Mets didn’t need much in the way of offense. All they needed arrived in the first frame, when rookie Daniel Murphy singled and jogged home on a moon shot by David Wright that put the Mets ahead 2-0. Carlos Delgado added a solo blast — his 24th homer of the season — in the fourth.

Aaron Heilman retired all six batters he faced in earning a rare two-frame save.

Notes

Daniel Murphy continues to impress. When he’s not stroking singles, he’s taking walks, showing outstanding strike zone judgment combined with prudent patience. I’m not loving his bat speed nor his current lack of power, but I think he’s holding back on his swing to make sure of contact right now. And you know what? If he’s going to hit .500 doing that, he may as well keep doing it. I’ll take 5 singles every 10 at-bats over one homer every 15 or 20, any day of the week.

Interesting to see Brian Schneider throw around the horn starting with first base, instead of third base, after a strikeout in the ninth. It means nothing, but I found it mildly intriguing.

In late June, who would have believed that Carlos Delgado would have 24 homers by the end of the season, much less by early August? His rejuvenation continues to be the biggest and most important story of the Mets this side of Fernando Tatis.

I’m trying to figure out how Carlos Beltran is batting as high as .269, and how he has 73 RBI. It feels like he’s hitting about .230 with 40 RBI. Kind of reminds me of Mike Cameron’s 2004 campaign, when he hit the lightest 30 homers in MLB history.

Is Aaron Heilman the closer? No, unless he’s a throwback. Closers in this day and age don’t get six outs, and don’t have guys warming up in the bullpen while they’re on the mound in the ninth. Nice job by Aaron. Too bad he’ll be useless for the rest of the weekend, since he’s thrown back-to-back days and in three out of the last four days. Who closes tomorrow? Joe Smith? Should be interesting, with Brian Stokes starting.

Next Game

The Mets and Marlins do it again at 7:10 pm on Saturday. Recent call-up Brian Stokes makes a spot start against Scott Olsen — the only Marlin who has been in the rotation since Opening Day.