Yay! The Mets have an off-day on Thursday and I was really dreading having to languish through nearly two days of bitter depression had the Mets found a way to lose the last game of the series to the Marlins. Thankfully, the Mets put the hurt on Florida last night, clobbering them by a score of 13-0 that the chortling horse to the right was kind enough to illustrate. Following the prepoculous suckfest that was Tuesday night's game it was nice to sit back and just enjoy a laugher. Here are some things that were awesome about last night.
Oliver Perez was dominant
Six innings pitched, five hits, one walk, eight strikeouts, nary a run. Ollie tossed just 93 pitches -- 59 for strikes -- and probably would have gone back out for the seventh if Willie didn't want to get his relievers some work in advance of tomorrow's mini hiatus. The 8-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio is something I could definitely get used to. Perez struck out almost nine batters per nine innings last year, but he also walked more than four. If he can keep the strikeout rate steady and drop the walk rate to three per nine innings (3-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio) he is going to have an incredible year. With Pedro Martinez on the shelf for 4-6 weeks (I'm guessing that'll be stretched to two months), the Mets need all the help they can get from Perez and John Maine, who will start against the Braves on Friday.
David Wright is teh r0x
Wright went 3-for-5 with a homerun, a double and three RBIs, and the double probably would have been a homerun in any park that doesn't have Dolphins Stadium's ginormous left-field scoreboard wall thingy. Wright also made two terrific plays in the field and didn't even muck them up by making wayward throws to first. The "M-V-P" chants from the mostly Met fan crowd were premature, but you've gotta love visiting team chants from the hometown crowd.
Angel Pagan is the real deal?
I'm not drinking from the Kool-Aid just yet, but I'll gladly eat crow if Pagan turns in a decent month while Moises Alou is in traction. He has four hits in ten at-bats and, perhaps more surprisingly, three walks in three games. Two of his four hits were doubles, so he has a delightfully satisfying .400/.500/.600 batting line so far this season. He picked up another two hits last night, and he's giving Willie plenty of excuses to keep Endy Chavez on the bench where he belongs. Regression to the mean is a dirty, dirty whore, but the longer Pagan can keep her waiting in the rain the better off we'll all be.
Nelson Figueroa is here
He might not be here for long, but you can't help but feel good for Nellie. He first popped up on the radar for most people when he was traded to the Phillies in 2000 in the multi-player deal that sent Curt Schilling to the Diamondbacks. He missed all of 2005 following rotator cuff surgery and spent 2006 with Triple-A New Orleans, then a Washington Nationals affiliate. He played 2007 with Los Dorados de Chihuahua of the Mexican League before heading to Taiwan in September of last year to join the Uni-President Lions of the Chinese Professional Baseball League for their playoff run. He won the first game of the first round playoff series before appearing in three games in the championship series -- Games 1, 4 and 7 -- winning them all and being named series MVP. (Source = Wikipedia).
Ryan Church needs a homerun slogan
When Church desposited his two-run bomb into the right-field bleachers in the second inning, I blurted out "Time to go to Church!" without even really thinking. Kim looked at me like I was from another planet, so I repeated it, "Time to go to Church!", in case she hadn't actually heard me the first time. She had, apparently, but even her indifference towards my impromptu slogan-creating awesomeness wasn't enough to dampen my spirits. I'm not sure if it'll stick, and I'm willing to consider alternatives (leave 'em in the comments!), but until something better comes along, whenever Ryno parks one there'll be at least one guy in Jersey shouting, "Time to go to Church!"