Could've Been Worse: Mets 7, Nationals 2

Johan Santana continued his brilliant season with seven innings of one-run ball, which meant the bullpen only had to hang on for six outs. It still took them three pitchers to do so, but it's another win in the books and, thanks to the Brewers sucking almost as badly as the Braves, the Mets find themselves with a 1.5 game cushion in the Wild Card race. The Mets still trail the Phillies by a half-game in the NL East, but it's a straight game in hand; the two teams are even in the loss column.

Carlos Beltran had another nice game, going 1-for-3 with an RBI-triple and a walk. Everyone was so caught up in rooting for Carlos Delgado up until a week ago or so that they haven't noticed Beltran hitting .373/.467/.784 in September (he hit .303/.365/.541 in August).

Santana hit his fifth double of the season tonight; Brian Schneider has ten. I kid the Schneid-dog, mostly because he's been awful this year. But give credit where it is due: his throwing has been great lately, and he was hitting .313/.361/.469 in September heading into last night's game, and he improved upon that line with a couple of dingers.

The Mets head to Atlanta tomorrow for a three-game series, so hopefully the Bravos will lay down in the dirt they way they did against the Phillies this week.

Big winners: Johan Santana, +17.7% WPA, Brian Schneider, +12.6% WPA
Big losers: David Wright, -5.7% WPA, Carlos Delgado, -3.6% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Schneid-dog homerun in 2nd, +9.9% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Delgado popout in first, -5.2% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: +19.0%
Total batter WPA: +31.0%
GWRBI: Jose Reyes

Game Thread Roll Call

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