Trailing after eight innings:
Willie Randolph's Mets: 1-30
Jerry Manuel's Mets: 1-1
I had a perfectly good unhappy recap half-written before the Mets went and ruined it by astonishingly scoring a run against Francisco Rodriguez in the top of the ninth. I could have salvaged most of it had the Mets just lost in the bottom of the ninth like we all expected, but nooooo. They had to go and win the whole thucking fing and left me writing this like a goon at 2am.
Oliver Perez stunk things up as usual, but somehow managed to keep the Mets in the game despite allowing something like six baserunners per inning. The Mets' bullpen was great, tossing four scoreless innings and allowing just one hit, no walks. After tying it in the ninth, Damion Easley gave the Mets the lead in the tenth with a laser into the left-field stands. David Wright made that terrific barehand play to throw out Kendrick to start the bottom of the tenth and Wagner got the next two hitters to close things out.
Yes, hooray, we're all ecstatic about the win. Coming from behind and getting a win against K-Rod and a very good Angels team -- winning the series even -- is awesome. I'm not going to sugarcoat things here, though: the Mets' lineup is still execrable, and they're going to have a tough time winning ballgames when the only decent starters are Wright, Reyes and Beltran. The Mets are feeling good right now, but they need to do something to improve the offense or the good vibes will dissipate faster than a Tatis-Chavez-Schneider half-inning.
Enough stinkypants for one post. Let's just enjoy this one.
Big winners: Billy Wagner, +20.9% WPA, Damion Easley, +43.6% WPA, David Wright, +34.5%
Big losers: Oliver Perez, -18.1% WPA, Trot Nixon, -15.9%% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: D-Ease extra-inning bomb, +40.8% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Vlad two-run single in fifth, -19.4% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: +25.0%
Total batter WPA: +25.0%