All Fired Up: Mets 7, Rockies 3

by Eric Simon on Jul 28, 2009 1:37 AM EDT

The good news for the Mets is that the epic fail that was the front office's handling of the Tony Bernazard situation will be softened somewhat by the team's come-from-behind win against the Wild Card-leading Rockies on Monday night. They got another passable pitching performance from Oliver Perez, who allowed three runs and nine baserunners in five innings, walking four and striking out five. He threw just 58.3% of his 103 pitches for strikes. Fortunately, Brian "Socks" Stokes tossed two scoreless innings of relief, followed by a scoreless frame apiece by Pedro Feliciano and Francisco Rodriguez. None of the Mets' relievers walked even a single batter, and no one took his shirt off and berated the rest of the team for being p!@#$ies, so all in all a good night for the bullpen.

On the offensive side of the ledger, Jeff Francoeur drew a walk! Okay, it was an intentional walk, but it's a baby step. He didn't swing at any of the pitches, so that has to be considered some kind of progress. He also pulled an outside pitch over the left-field wall for his eight homerun of the season and third with the Mets. He also didn't fall down or duck out of the way of any flyballs. A primo night for Frenchy.

Luis Castillo picked up a couple of singles and a walk, pushing his on-base percentage to .402. Not counting tonight's action, Castillo has hit .339/.433/.394 in 34 games since his game-costing gaffe against the Yankees on June 12. Maybe it'll last, maybe it won't, but for now Castillo is earning his money and is quite a ways down on the Mets' list of problems they need to address.

Omir Santos, Alex Cora and Angel Pagan did nothing, surprising no one in the process.

Fernando Tatis provided the offensive play of the game, swatting a pinch-hit grand slam in the bottom of the eighth to break a 3-3 tie. It was the eighth pinch-hit grand slam in team history and the first since Todd Pratt did it on 5/30/2000 against the Dodgers. Hawk Taylor was the first to accomplish the feat, doing so on 8/17/1966 against the Pirates. Steve Henderson, Tim Teufel, Dave Gallagher, Joe Orsulak, Todd Hundley and Benny Agbayani have also done it.

Mike Pelfrey takes on Jason Marquis on Tuesday night at 7:10pm.

Swag Contest

Swag contest results can be found here and the next game's swag form already available. You can read more about the swag contest here.

SB Nation Coverage

* Traditional Recap
* Boxscore
* Amazin' Avenue Gamethread
* Purple Row Gamethread

Win Probability Added

Big winners: Fernando Tatis, +21.1% WPA, David Wright, +19.5% WPA
Big losers: Omir Santos, -11.8% WPA, Oliver Perez, -9.6% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Tatis grand slam in eighth, +21.1% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Tulowitzki homerun in second, -15.8% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: +16.0% WPA
Total batter WPA: +34.0% WPA
GWRBI!: Fernando Tatis

Game Thread Roll Call

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

Num	Name	# of Posts
1	Abstract NYC	112
2	Jadden Hopkins	96
3	Mex_17	64
4	fxcarden	57
5	Kepler	50
6	njmetfan12	29
7	anonymous	29
8	aparkermarshall	24
9	Syler	22
10	FireOmar	22

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Comments

I think you're missing a paragraph here somewhere

I looked through the whole of your excellent game recap and couldn’t find the 100+ words of all-caps swearing about Murphy bunting ahead of Tatis in the eighth. It must be a copy-and-paste error, right? I know you wrote that.

by anonymous on Jul 28, 2009 1:44 AM EDT reply actions

I thought that was fine.

We just needed a run to put K-Rod in for a cinch win. Daniel Murphy ain’t Harmon Killebrew.

You may have Utley, Howard, Rollins, Hamels, and Lidge...but, WE have Fernando Tatis, baby. Two grand slames in one inning. Hello??

by ZaBlanc on Jul 28, 2009 2:03 AM EDT up reply actions

You can't assume

the bunt is always a bad play. In this case you only need 1 run. Now if you were to bunt in the first inning with a .400 OBP guy, that would be a bad play. Fortunately, our awesome manager would never something that foolish.

You don't cheer for the Mets. You drink for the Mets.

by Kevin H on Jul 28, 2009 7:45 AM EDT up reply actions

3 game winning streak and Omar stepping on a grenade that should eventually end his career in NY

With apologies to Dr. Dre, I gotta say that today was a good day.

Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but Jerry abuses the privilege.

by AnthonyR on Jul 28, 2009 1:49 AM EDT reply actions

That's Ice Cube

"We must win and we must know how to win rather than win because we have statistical people."

by Evan_S on Jul 28, 2009 3:03 AM EDT up reply actions

That it is...it's late.

Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but Jerry abuses the privilege.

by AnthonyR on Jul 28, 2009 3:25 AM EDT up reply actions

Marquis will kill us.

Pitchers of his type, in this situation, always call for the Mets to lay down and play dead. Let’s see what happens. I am putting the Mets at good for 3 hits.

You may have Utley, Howard, Rollins, Hamels, and Lidge...but, WE have Fernando Tatis, baby. Two grand slames in one inning. Hello??

by ZaBlanc on Jul 28, 2009 2:02 AM EDT reply actions

2 of those hits

will be homeruns and we win 2-1

by Jadden Hopkins on Jul 28, 2009 6:06 AM EDT up reply actions

Well Ollie's heartburn inducing outing aside

Not a bad night of baseball for us. Could knocked me over with a feather when Tatis hit that home run. Of all the people to hit one, man, it reminded me of Santos v. Papelbon earlier this season. Didn’t see that one coming either

"I reject your reality and substitute my own"
-Adam Savage

by blueandorange4life on Jul 28, 2009 2:41 AM EDT reply actions

"Omir Santos, Alex Cora and Angel Pagan did nothing, surprising no one in the process"

Pagan hasn’t been bad at all.
Pagan wOBA .353
Cora wOBA .280
Omir wOBA .309

by Michkin on Jul 28, 2009 6:40 AM EDT reply actions

How sad is this:

1) David Wright – 2.8 WAR
2) Carlos Beltran – 2.6 WAR
3) Luis Castillo – 1.5 WAR
4) Angel Pagan – 1.0 WAR
5) Omir Santos – .8 WAR
Gary Sheffield – .8 WAR
Carlos Delgado – .8 WAR
6) Jose Reyes – .7 WAR

"We must win and we must know how to win rather than win because we have statistical people."

by Evan_S on Jul 28, 2009 6:49 AM EDT up reply actions

Wow

The Mets should trade Beltran. Seriously, if Beltran was so important, how come his name was not on the scoreboard last night?

Grission and Husart - that is either the non-union Mexican equivelant of "Starsky and Hutch" or the key to winning the World Series.

by IanB in MD on Jul 28, 2009 8:57 AM EDT up reply actions

True

Pagan has been surprisingly good, and probably shouldn’t be lumped in with those other two losers. Nevertheless, if his wOBA is much above .300 when all is said and done I’ll be surprised.

by Eric Simon on Jul 28, 2009 9:20 AM EDT up reply actions

Of the three

I think he is the only one who has a chance of doing so. And, in fairness, Pagan has looked like a major league outfielder and decent hitter, both numerically and using ‘gut-feeling’.

by deadspy3 on Jul 28, 2009 10:34 AM EDT up reply actions

Plus he's

an original Cyclone!

by dtro on Jul 28, 2009 10:49 AM EDT up reply actions

Maybe it was left over joy

from what seems to be the beginning of the end of the Minaya era, but that Tatis slam had me frickin jubilant! Like the happiest I’ve been as a Mets fan in months.

by dtro on Jul 28, 2009 8:48 AM EDT reply actions

Exactly.

Tatis has a ton of fun, which makes it even better (it’s like he knows something about hitting grand slams.) All hope for the future rests in the hands of Big Pelf. If he can stop himself from becoming the younger version of Ollie, then maybe I can feel good about things.

Grission and Husart - that is either the non-union Mexican equivelant of "Starsky and Hutch" or the key to winning the World Series.

by IanB in MD on Jul 28, 2009 9:02 AM EDT up reply actions