FLUSHING, NY – Amid all the turmoil of the past few days, the New York Mets continued their sudden resurgence winning their fourth straight game 4-0 over the Colorado Rockies at Citi Field Tuesday evening. Before the game Mets CEO Jeff Wilpon continued the damage control speaking for his GM Omar Minaya
Apparently none of the turmoil, surrounding the dismissal of Tony Bernazzard, the Director of Player Personnel and Minaya accusing a beat reporter, Adam Rubin of lobbying for Berazzard’s job, has affected the team. Wilpon addressed the issue before the game with media on the field and then the Mets did their job.
They won another ballgame, and for now, winning for the Mets has become the remedy to put some rest to all of the controversy and soap opera drama that has been a major part of this Mets baseball season.
“We’re just playing better baseball,” said starting pitcher Mike Pelfrey about the Mets current winning streak, their longest since May 25-29. Pelfrey (8-6) won his third straight start against the Rockies, going 6.1 scoreless innings, allowing seven hits and three walks, striking out five. He also got out of two bases loaded jams twice retiring Clint Barms in the fourth and sixth innings.
Mets manager Jerry Manuel commented that the players don’t pay attention to what has been going off the field His focus has been to hopefully see things turn around, with the team that he has. The injured players, in particular Jose Reyes and Carlos Delgado continue their rehab programs with hopes they will be back in the lineup soon. At the same time, Manuel hoped for some better baseball and the Mets have responded.
“As his season goes along he eventually gets stronger,” said Manuel about Pelfrey. The meets pitching staff during this streak has a 2.25 ERA. And before winning games resumed an important part of the lineup, Luis Castillo, continued to stay hot. He went 1-3 and drove in one of the Mets runs, and over the last 18 games has a .543 on base percentage which is the best in baseball.
“The thing about Louie is we have found a way to work around his game,” said Manuel about his second baseman.”He has a lot of energy and confidence.” And that comment stems from how Manuel saw Castillo prepare during spring training, and how Castillo has managed to adjust whether he is placed second or eighth in the batting order.
The Rockies have now lost 20 of their last 22 games against the Mets that go back to Shea Stadium and now Citi Field. And suddenly the Mets with their second straight win over Colorado, are creeping slowly back into the NL wild card race. They picked up two games on the Rockies and trail them by 5/1-2 games in the standings.
And for a change things have been going the Mets way. The hitting has been timely, the pitching respectable, and on the field plays are going their way. An eighth inning play that went to the Mets advantage would not have gone in their favor the past month. Castillo was clearly out at the plate trying to score from second on a hit by Daniel Murphy.
In the four game streak the Mets have not committed an error, another indication as to how, at least for the moment, the tide has turned. Every run scored Tuesday came when the leadoff man got on base. Daniel Murphy doubled and came around in the second inning. Alex Cora singled in the second and scored, Murphy would walk and score again in the fourth and Castillo walked and scored the Mets final run in the eighth.
Pedro Feliciano got five straight outs in relief, and Sean Green finished it up. David Wright extended his hitting streak to seven games and Daniel Murphy now has hit in five straight. And the Mets infield handled three double plays, something they could not do right against the lowly Washington Nationals last week.
So everything is going right for the Mets right now, despite the fact one of their big scoreboards in right field out of commission the entire night. “It feels good to win and that starts with our starting pitching,” said Wright who had two hits.
“Omar made a mistake and he admitted it,” said Wilpon speaking about his embattled GM. “We have to get the guys back on track,” he said about his team.” It is apparent the Mets are on the right track, at least for the moment. In this season that has provided a little bit of everything but winning, maybe we have seen the last of the unexpected.
Game three of the four games series continues Wednesday evening, 7:10pm at Citi Field Right hander Jason Hammel (5-5) gets the start for Colorado and Johan Santana (11-8) will get the ball for New York.
e-mail Rich Mancuso: Ring786@aol.com
