Lost in the shenanigans that is the Adam Rubin / Omar Minaya / Tony Bernazard fiasco, the Mets won a game, in dramatic fashion, and pushed their winning streak to three.
Oliver Perez pitched an Oliver Perez-like game, allowing three earned runs in five innings. He needed 103 pitches to get through the five frames. He walked four and struck out five.
The game was tied at three in the bottom of the 8th inning. Luis Castillo, who has, as Jerry Manuel noted, been on fire, walk to lead off the inning. David Wright followed with a walk of his own as Rockies pitcher Juan Rincon couldn’t even come close to the strikezone.
This is where things jumped the script of the Mets season as of late. Daniel Murphy, who for no reason should be the Mets cleanup hitter, pushed a beautiful bunt down the third base line, advancing both runners in exchange for the first out of the inning.
Then the Rockies issued an intentional walk to Jeff Francoeur, the first base on balls for Frenchy as a Met. This was to get to ex-Rockie Cory Sullivan, who was 0-1 with a walk and a RBI sac-fly. Instead, Jerry Manuel chose to pinch hit Fernando Tatis.
And every single Mets fan watching this game thought the same thing: Here comes the inning-ending double play.
New pitcher Franklin Morales was quickly ahead 0-2 on Tatis and every Mets fan had the same wish: Please strikeout!
But Tatis connected on a changeup down and over the plate and sent it into the left field stands for a pinch-hit grand slam, giving the Mets a 7-3 lead that they did not relinquish.
This game did not seem like it was a 2009 game. The Mets hung tough and scored when it counted. They manufactured two of their runs, and the other five came from home runs (Francoeur earlier connected on a solo shot).
I remarked during the game, “This Mets team actually looks like it wants to win games.” I also remarked that games like this give Mets fans hope, which I couldn’t decide if that was a good or bad thing.
The jury is still out on the latter.
(Oh, and for those wondering about my trip to the dentist (see: bottom), I’m cavity free. I just need to floss more.)
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