Game 1: Mets 3 Braves 2
At the outset of this game Ron Darling said the following, "The Mets season is almost like you go to Vegas, you win 500 bucks and you give it all back and you have to call your Uncle Pete for a plane ticket. They have given up all that good joy of that 8 game winning streak with this bad run."
Well the Mets went back to the blackjack table tonight with some money they had been saving up and told the dealer to "Let it ride." And they got a 20 and the dealer busted.
So with that winning hand in Vegas and some great pitching by Mike Pelfrey, Perpetual Pedro and KRod the Mets came out victorious tonight.
Let's take a look back at how this game played out because oh yes I'm going to highlight everything the Mets did to get this victory. It's not every day I get to gloat about the Amazins! But before we look at a recap of the game here was tonight's lineup. Again Jerry Manuel decided to tinker around a bit,
Reyes
Castillo
Bay
Carter
Wright
Davis
Barajas
Matthews Jr.
Pelfrey
Ok now to the highlight reel!
In the top of the 2nd Chris "The Animal" Carter who started in place of Frenchy for the second straight day lead off with a double. David Wright got a productive out and Chris moved on down to 3rd. Davis was then plunked by Derek Lowe and Mr. Clutch Rod Barajas came to bat. Rod got a 2 rib eye steak double and the Mets took a 2-0 lead. Matthews Jr. and Pelfrey both grounded out and the inning was over.
In the bottom of the 5th, Hinske got a solo homer for the Braves and the Mets lead was cut to just one run, 2-1.
In the top of the 6th Reyes lead off the inning with a single and Castillo moved Reyes to 2nd with a sacrifice bunt. Then Bay came to the plate and Reyes did his thang and stole 3rd. This was a crucial aggressive running play by the Mets. Bay was then walked and with 1st and 3rd and nobody out "The Animal" came to wreak some havoc. Carter drove in a run with a slow ground ball out and the Mets lead was back up to 2, 3-1. With Wright up to bat Lowe threw a wild pitch, it got away from McCann and Bay was safe at 3rd. Unfortunately Davey grounded out to Larry Jones and the inning was over.
In the bottom of the 6th, Frenchy came in to replace Carter in right field. Prado lead off the inning with a double. Jason "Rookie" Heyward then flew out to Francouer but Prado advanced to 3rd. Larry the Cable Guy, well Chipper Jones got an rbi sac fly and Prado scored and the Mets lead was just down to one run yet again, 3-2. But that was all the magic the Braves could pull off in the 6th.
In the top of the 8th the Mets didn't score but Canadian BAY-con extended his hitting streak to 11 games with a 2 out single. And when Georgia's own Jeff Francouer came up to bat he was received by a mixture of boos and cheers. The booth was pretty sure the cheers were louder. Unfortunately I had to boo when Frenchy flew out.
In the bottom of the 8th trouble was brewing for the Pelf so with 2 outs and Jason Heyward set to bat Perpetual Pedro came in to shut the door on a Braves comeback. It was not as easy as I would have liked but after an infield hit by the rookie, a walk for Larry, and the bases loaded for Brian McCann, Feliciano struck McCann OUT! The side was retired!
Then in the bottom of the 9th KRod worked his magic. With just one pitch Troy Glaus flew out to Frenchy and that meant 2 more outs and the Mets 5 game losing streak would be over. Hinske grounded out to Castillo for out number 2. Now Frankie decided to give us fans some anxiety. With 2 outs KRod walked Escobar who ended up stealing second. With the potential tying run on 2nd and with 2 outs Rodriguez struck out Nate Mclouth and the ball game was over! KRod got save number six, the Mets ended the losing streak and a Mets starter finally won in the month of May! Yay Pelfrey and the Mets! By the way this was also Pelf's longest outing of the season, 7 and 2/3 innings pitched, not too shabby at all.
So normally I would now highlight all the great conversations Gary, Ron and Keith had in the booth but Keith is not in Atlanta and the booth action tonight was kind of blah.
However, no need to fret folks a new segment was introduced by the one and only Kevin Burkhardt. It was called, "Get to know Chris Carter." It turns out not only did Carter go to Stanford University but the smarty pants graduated in 3 1/4 years. And he wanted to become a doctor, NERD. "The Animal" studied neurology and stem cell research, NERD. He even told Kevin his toughest course in college was molecular biology, NERD. So yeah he's really smart, NERD. But if you are like me you love NERDS so yay for Chris.
Here are a few more facts the great Burkhardt left out about #23:
Chris is 27.
He weighs 230 pounds.
He is 6 feet tall.
His hometown is Fremont, California.
He made his major league debut on June 5, 2008 as a Red Sox.
Carter was given the nickname “The Animal” by Jerry Manuel in spring training because of his INTENSE workout habits.
He had an 11 game hitting streak at Triple-A Buffalo and was hitting .336 with 9 doubles, 2 triples, 6 homers and 22 RBI’s.
He never sits at all.
He eats standing up. In fact, he walks around with a chicken on a fork.
According to Ike Davis, “He’s clutch.”
Keith Hernandez says he is a great listener and an all around outstanding kid.
Carter is the ultimate cheerleader and he is well known for keeping his squad fired up. Take that Kirsten Dunst!
Also very important to note about today, Jeff Wilpon and the front office traveled on down to Atlanta to have a pow wow before tonight's game. And Wilpon said the following, "If I was going to make a change 38 games into the season then I probably should have made it in the off season."
So basically Jerry Manuel seems to have job security but the Mets let's continue to turn this season around just in case because when management gets behind a manager sometimes they really aren't behind the manager if you get my drift. We just need to win regardless of what management says. SO Metsies please keep doing that.
Santana do your thang tomorrow night.
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