Keep On Keepin' On

Free Movie night again and we saw WALL-E, and it was really pretty great. It was funny and sad, charming and poignant. The social commentary (yes, social commentary) was scathing and unlike anything I've seen in a would-be children's movie. Once again, Pixar outdid themselves in the animation department, as the film is visually stunning and there are times when it is easy to forget that you're watching an animated film. Wholeheartedly recommended, just make sure you don't sit behind a giantess with theater seat A.D.D like I did.

Mike Pelfrey: Stud? Okay, so calling the Giants' offense mediocre would be like calling the K-T extinction event a minor impediment to Cretaceous life forms, but Pelfrey still had to go out there and pitch a ballgame. He did, and it was the best damned game he's pitched this year. Seven innings, three hits, five whiffs, no walks. The outing pushes Pelfrey's 2008 innings total over the century mark, during which he has allowed exactly four homeruns and none since May 21. That's nine starts and 51.2 innings without a longball, which is just awesome. His ERA drops to 3.93, which puts him in the Top 25 among NL starters, which is kind of crazy when you think about it. That would make him something like an average #2 starter, if we say the Top 16 are the #1s. His ERA is 2.61 over his last eight starts. We're only talking about ERA here, but it's still pretty remarkable.

Conversely, Tim Lincecum had his worst game of the season, allowing more hits (nine) than in any other game this season, and allowing as many as four runs for just the third time (once was five runs in five innings, the other was four runs in seven innings, so this was worse than the latter). The four strikeouts were the third-fewest of the season, and the two homeruns allowed were the most he has allowed in as few as six innings pitched. He has arguably been the best pitcher in the National League this year and the Mets made him look slightly below average, which is nothing to sneeze at.

Perhaps as important as anything, the win improves the Mets' record in games during which we're at Free Movie Night to 5-0 (that'd be Iron Man, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Indy, Wanted and now WALL-E). Considering that the Mets have won roughly half of their total games played, the odds of them winning all of those five games was one in thirty-two. I'm not superstitious and I don't believe in curses, but I *do* believe in free movies and Mets wins, so I'm gonna keep on doing one and keep on asking my voodoo doll during our weekly séance/ritualistic human sacrifice that the other follow accordingly.

Big winners: Mike Pelfrey, +31.6% WPA, Carlos Beltran, +24.6% WPA
Big losers: Damion Easley, -6.8% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Beltran first inning bomb (not clutch), +20.5% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Easley DP in third, -6.0% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: +32.4%
Total batter WPA: +17.6%

Game Thread Roll Call

Nice job by JoshNY; his effort in the game thread embiggens us all.