Ugly? Who Cares? It's a Win.

Well, it sure wasn't pretty last night. The bats were sleepy again. Two guys got picked off first. Joe Smith was a tad wild. Two errors by Pujols were not taken advantage of. But at the end of the night, the Mets went home with a big W. Not pretty, but it really doesn't matter.


That's four in a row for the good guys. Wins that is, in case you weren't sure. A lead that had dwindled to 1.5 games is now back to 3.5 over the Phillies this time. The Braves stand 4.5 back. The lead is the same it was on June 1. The only fly in the ointment is that the Phillies actually whittled their deficit down from 8.5 to 3.5 this month. But that's OK, since we have 4 against them this weekend. Time to bury them, just like last year.

Jorge Sosa pitched well last night, which was a nice sight since he had been blasted his last two outings. He went 6 innings, allowing 1 run with 2 walks and 5 K's. Joe Smith went 2/3, allowing a hit and two walks. Pedro Dos relieved Smith, turning Scott (Happy Trail) Spezio around to the right side (his good side), but Pedro got the out, leaving the bases juiced. Pedro pitched the 8th, and Wags pitched the 9th and 10th, allowing not hits with 3 K's. Heilman pitched the 11th, allowing a bloop hit and getting 2 K's. Aaron has turned it on of late. Time to anoint him the 8th inning guy. He got the win.

The bats totalled 3 hits. Delgado had a single. Carlos Gomez, after hitting a long fly ball to left that was foul, straightened it out 3 pitches later. It is not often that you see a long foul followed by a HR. Well, Gomez did it, and then, in the 11th, Shawn Green did the same thing. A long foul to right. Two pitches later, a CRUSHED homer off the scoreboard and jubilation in the stands and at home plate.

The streak is now at 4. Lets take at least 2 more from the Cardinals. Then, onto Philly, for a doubleheader on Friday and games Saturday and Sunday. Saturday there will be a large contingent from MetsGeek in the stands. That oughta be interesting. Alas, Ed is unable to attend.

In other news PLD was suspended 2 games for his tirade on Saturday. He has appealled, and is hoping it gets knocked down to 1 game. If not, I would guess he will sit out the two games Friday, or perhaps Thursday and the first game Friday, allowing the called up catcher to catch Mike Pelfrey, who is the probable starter for one of the games Friday. We shall see. Paulie needs to watch his temper. I'm all for fire, but he went way too far.

Pedro will throw another bullpen session today. If all goes well, he will start throwing BP probably next week. This bears watching. I'm cautiously optimistic about his return, but not getting my hopes up too high.

Alou will see the doctor again next Monday. Omar said that he is feeling better. Perhaps the shut-down has helped. His bat is important.



Finally, I have a new column coming today on FU. Take a look, it will probably be up this afternoon. It is about Delgado.

Over at FU, "The Coop" has a column about Alou. Nice read as always Coop.