Game 2: Mets 5 Nats 3
Niese vs Atilano
Pagan was back in the lineup, Reyes was not.
The Mets and Nats wore their red, white and blue 4th of July hats!
Today was Angel Pagan's 29th birthday and for a few minutes in the bottom of the 9th it appeared that the usual metsies killing suspects, Roger Bernadina and Willie Harris might in fact ruin Pagan's big day. But no the baseball gods were watching out for the Metsies tonight and they said, "Roger Bernadina we don't like you very much, mwhahahahaha." Yes Bernadina was picked off at 2nd by KRod in the bottom of the 9th and the ball game was over. The Mets won 5-3. But this score is misleading because before this bottom of the 9th, this game was no nail-biter. Jonathon Niese pitched another gem, he struck out 8 batters, a new career high, and the Mets were winning 5-1 until the 9th. But I don't want to get too ahead of myself with how everything went a little cuckoo, let's just get to the recap! This game ended up being a real wild ride. Here we go!
With 1 out in the top of the first Ruben Tejada was hit by a pitch. Yeah Atilano got him right on the back. This is Tejada's second time being pegged in the back this week. Gary and Ron commented on how fast his recovery from the beaning was this time compared to the other day against the Marlins. I guess practice makes perfect! Wright then singled and there were now men on 1st and 3rd for Isaac Benjamin Davis! Ike grounded into what should have been a routine double play but thankfully Guzman booted it and the only play he could make was at first and Davis was out. Wright was safe at 2nd and Tejada scored! Ike's rib eye steak gave the Metsies a 1-0 lead over the Nats. Bay then struck out to end the inning, boo. This was a shame because today was Jason's 1000th career game. He's in fact the 12th Canadian to play in 1000 games! Yay Canadians, ehhhhh???!!
In the bottom of the 1st with 1 out and 1 on Adam Dunn was up to bat. Nyjer Morgan who had led this inning off with a single was on at first and he tried to steal 2nd. Initially he was safe but he over-slid and Davey tagged him and he was called out.
But this tag by Wright was controversial. It sort of looked like maybe Dave pushed him off the bag or something like that. Yeah the Nats are pesky and they like to complain. But they didn't get their way, neiner neiner. And they didn't score this inning, YAY!
Atilano was pitching very well for the Nats tonight but all of a sudden in the top of the 4th he just lost his mojo and it was marvelous. Wright led off this inning with a double. He was now 2 for 2 on the 2nd of July! And that double is Dave's 25th of the season! Ike and Bay were then both walked, I told you Atilano couldn't find that pitching mojo of his and the bases were now loaded for Barajas. Unfortunately Barajas is just in such a terrible slump and he flew out. He couldn't even hit a fly ball far enough to score Wright at 3rd, that's how bad Rod is hitting. Barajas we miss the old you, come back! Frenchy who Gary and Ron find odd to look at without that beard of his lined one to short right at Desmond and now there were 2 outs and the bases were still loaded. At this point I really thought Atilano was going to get out of this inning unscathed but I was forgetting that Alex Cora was up next. Cora may not get many hits but when he does get hits they are usually with runners in scoring position. And what do you know Cora said "Don't doubt my skills Danielle!" and he cleared the bases with a TRIPLE! The Mets were now up 4-0 over the Nats. Alex I will never doubt you again! Then the best moment of the night, well for me it was my fave moment, Niese doubled! Cora scored, Jon got his first career extra base hit and his first career rib eye steak! The Metsies were now up 5-0 over the Nats and Atilano was yanked out of this ball game, YAY! Peralta came in to do some relief work and he was awesome. He struck out Pagan and this delightful inning was sadly over.
In the bottom of the 4th Niese struck out Pudge Rodriguez with 2 outs and Willingham on at first. This strike out was Jon's 8th of the night and like I said before this is his new career high! Congrats Jon!
Also in this inning Kevin Burkhardt interviewed the Attorney General Eric Holder who is a huge Mets fan.
Holder threw out the first pitch tonight and he said that was the scariest thing he's ever done. Speaking in front of CONGRESS is nothing compared to making sure you get that pitch from the mound to the catcher's mitt! Yeah Burkhardt didn't get Holder. He was all "You sure throwing out the first pitch is harder than being Attorney General, REALLY this is how you think?????? What's up with that E-Dawg!" Kevin didn't say this exactly but he was shocked by Eric's logic. Holder also admitted that his brother made him leave the 6th game of the 1986 World Series because his foolish bro thought the Metsies would never be able to beat the Bo Sox. Kevin told him "At least you have a good story to tell!" I don't know about that Kevin. If it was me folks I'd rather enjoy saying "I kept believing in the Amazins and I stayed to see Mookie Wilson hit that routine grounder to first base where the ball went under Bill Buckner's glove and into right field which allowed Ray Knight to score, giving the Metsies a 6-5 comeback victorino over the Red Sox!" Yeah I'd definitely take that over a story about me being a huge non-believing fool.
Josh Willingham led off the bottom of the 7th with a homer. Oh that Willingham, such a pain in the ass. The Mets lead was now just 5-1, ugh. Ivan the Terrible then flew out to right and Frenchy made a spectacular shoestring catch that was all Ike Davis-like! He tumbled and it was just awesome.
ESPN you better show this catch on Sports Center! Gary called Jeff a "stuntman" and Ron said "except he's not on fire." Sheesh Ron don't even joke like that haha. Morse then flew out and Desmond popped up to Ike in foul territory and the side was retired. And Niese after throwing 117 pitches was done for the night! Check out his phenomenal stats:
7IP 1R 6H 8K 0BB
Parnell pitched great in the bottom of the 8th. He retired the side in order, Kennedy, Morgan and Guzman buh bye! This was Bobby's 7th straight great relief appearance. Keep it up Parnell because we need someone consistently good in this Metsies bullpen!
Now to the bottom of the 9th that gave Mets fans a punch in the stomach. Yes for most of this inning I thought I had the wind knocked out of me. Perpetual Pedro came in to face the first batter of the inning, Adam Dunn and he struck out Dunn! Dunn was done, yay! Btw this was Feliciano's 46th appearance. He's on track to make 90 appearances, whoa whoa whoa. His career high is 88 appearances. The next batter was Zimmerman, Jerry had Dessens come in to face Ryan and Elmer walked him. Then Josh Willingham was up and he actually didn't hurt us and instead he flew out and there were 2 outs.
But now it's time for the wind knocked out of me portion of the inning. With 2 outs and Zimmerman on at 1st Rodriguez doubled. Now there were 2 outs and runners on 2nd and 3rd for the pinch hitter ROGER BERNADINA, NOOOOO. And it was now a save situation so Elmer was given the boot and Jerry said it was "Frankie time." Bernadina had hit a homer off of KRod earlier this year and yeah he didn't do that but he singled and Zimm scored. The Nats were down just 5-2 now.
Then Desmond singled and the Mets lead was just 2 runs, 5-3. The pinch hitter Willie Harris was up next and yeah he's known for his Metsies killing ways. I was very very very worried the Amazins were going to lose this one. Oh I was. But something out of this world crazy good happened and KRod picked off Bernadina at 2nd, Willie Harris didn't get to do jack shit with that 3-2 count of his and the Mets won. The ball game was over! Thanks to Frankie and Tejada's teamwork on that pickoff, KRod got his 19th save and Niese won his 6th game! This win ended up not being so pretty and easy as it seemed but I think us fans will take what we can get at this point. I don't know about anyone else but I can't stand losing to the Marlins or the Nats!
Well tomorrow is STRASMAS! I can't wait for the Dickey vs Strasburg face-off! This is like my dream game.
The game will air on FOX. I'd love to get to hear Cohen and Darling's commentary for this game but we'll have to settle for BUCK and MCCARVER, ugh. The Metsies let's get Stras his 3rd straight loss, woot woot!
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