Game Recap: Mets 2 -- Pirates 1

The Mets jumped out, fell asleep, and then barely hung on to a win in Pittsburgh...

Pitching Performance

Another beautiful performance almost slipped through the Mets fingers, but the bullpen staved off the Pirates to secure the win for Mike Pelfrey and the Mets.

Pelfrey threw another spectacular game in his best season so far in his young career. Pelfrey threw seven shut out innings, walking none and striking out only one. He threw 98 pitches, and got the benefit of a perfect throw from Carlos Beltran in the seventh inning, but more on that later.

Pelfrey looked great. He scattered his seven hits, and trusted his players to make the outs tonight. Gotta love Big Pelf.

Duaner Sanchez apparently does not like easy wins, as he gave up a solo home run in the bottom of the 8th inning to make it a one run game. Sanchez allowed a double and intentionally walked one batter before recording the third out in the inning.

Whew! That's all I have to say.

Aaron Heilman started the inning with a spectacular, heads up play by Argenis Reyes to make the first out of the inning. Heilman issued one walk, but induced a game ending pop-up to finish it off and earn his third save.

Again, whew.

Offensive Output

Anything the Mets had, they showed it early and then shut down. The Mets strung together three straight hits before an out was recorded in the first inning for their only two runs of the game. Jose Reyes, Argenis Reyes and David Wright each singled, with Wright's hit driving in Jose. Argenis later scored on a wild pitch.

From there on out, the Mets bats were stifled. Carlos Delgado and Brian Schneider each had doubles, but nothing much came from the rest of the game.

The Rest of the Story

Besides Pelfrey's great outing, defense was the main reason the Mets won this game. I can thing of at least five plays off the top of my head that the Mets made in the field to help get outs.

The two of note were made by Beltran and A. Reyes. Beltran, in the bottom of the seventh inning, gunned down Adam LaRoche at home plate after fielding a single off the bat of Brandon Moss. Beltran threw a perfect ball to Schneider, who didn't do a great job of blocking the plate, but managed to make the tag and record the out.

In the top of the ninth, leading off the inning, Andy LaRoche bounced a ball to first. Delgado backed up, but the ball ate him up and skipped by him. Thankfully, A-Rey was aware enough to sprint over and slide in behind Delgado on the outfield grass and field the ball. Heilman did his job and got over to cover first in time for Reyes to make the quick throw and avert some trouble in the ninth.

There were other great plays, but these were critical in the game. I really like the way A-Rey has played in his limited time. Does Luis Castillo really have to come back?

Game Ball: Mike Pelfrey