Mike Pelfrey Rocked: Rockies 8, Mets 3

Not an encouraging start for Mike Pelfrey, who struggled with location and consistency on Tuesday night at Coors Field. Pelfrey had been pretty good in three of four August starts, but this time out he allowed seven runs on six hits and five walks in 4 innings. He also allowed two homeruns -- one each to Carlos Gonzalez and Todd Helton -- which is surprising, even considering the venue, as Pelfrey had allowed just ten homeruns all season before this game. He did get seven swinging strikes in 96 pitches (7.3%) -- higher than his season mark of 5.7% -- and struck out four batters. Pelfrey was very critical of his performance during his post-game interviews, indicating that he was "embarrassed" at the way he pitched and that he basically didn't belong out there. It's hard to argue with the big guy on this one; he walked in a run in the first inning and was visibly flustered most of the time he was on the mound.

Pelfrey's outing aside, the boner of the night goes to Angel Pagan, who was embarrassingly duped by Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki in the first inning. Pagan had singled to center to lead off the game, and was followed by Luis Castillo, who deposited a would-be single into right field. Pagan was running with the pitch, and was fooled by Tulowitzki into thinking that Castillo's ball had actually been caught. Pagan, who had already rounded second, retreated back around second and started returning to first. By the time Pagan had realized his mistake, the ball was relayed to Tulowitzki who stepped on second for the unorthodox fielder's choice. It was a stupid play and, as Keith Hernandez pointed out, Pagan should have been watching Castillo's swing to see the trajectory of the ball off the bat. Pagan ran the Mets out of a larger inning, as they went on to score two runs in the first but might otherwise have had three or more.

With thirty games remaining in the season, the Mets are in eight place overall (from the bottom) and trail Oakland and Cleveland by just a half-game. The A's and Padres both won so the Mets picked up a game on those two. Washington appears to be running away with the Bryce Harper sweepstakes.

Tim Redding takes the mound against Ubaldo Jimenez at 8:40pm EDT on Wednesday.

Haiku by Howard Megdal

Wright, helmet return
Pelf generous to a fault
Green emulates him

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: David Wright, +7.0% WPA, Fernando Tatis, +5.5% WPA
Big losers: Mike Pelfrey, -42.1% wpa, Luis Castillo, -10.3% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Tatis RBI double in first, +9.1% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Gonzalez two-run homerun in second, -17.0% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: -41.7% WPA
Total batter WPA: -8.3% WPA
GWRBI!: None

Game Thread Roll Call

Nice job by blueandorange4life; his effort in the game thread embiggens us all.