Mets 5, Twins 2: Pelfrey, Wright Get Things Rolling Again

After dropping a tough game to the Tigers on Thursday, the Mets got back to the goods on Friday against the Twins. Mets pitchers threw 169 pitches to just 111 for Minnesota's hurlers, but the Mets got a home run from David Wright and a couple of key hits with runners in scoring position that made the difference in the end.

Jose Reyes picked up two more hits in a 2-for-3 night, knocking in a run with a sacrifice fly and bringing his OPS up to .768. Considering that it was just .628 on June 8, that's an impressive three-week stretch. Moreover, his month of June has been tremendous: .345/.402/.607 and 7-for-8 in stolen bases. His 1.7 pre-game WAR was fourth among 11 qualifying NL shortstops and just a hair's length behind Juan Uribe for third overall.

Mike Pelfrey allowed six hits and two runs over six innings, but he didn't walk anyone and picked up his tenth win of the season to just two losses. He threw a lot of pitches -- 117 -- and worked a lot of deep counts, watching the Twins hitters foul off pitch after pitch before eventually retiring most of them. It was hardly his best all-around effort, but he was able to hold it together long enough to hand it off to the Mets now-unstoppable bullpen. Bobby Parnell pitched a scoreless seventh and has struck out six batters to just one base-on-balls in three innings since being recalled from Triple-A Buffalo earlier in the week. Pedro Feliciano struck out two Twinkies in the eighth, and Francisco Rodriguez worked around a wonky back -- and a couple of hits -- to close things out in the ninth.

The Braves and Phillies both won so the Mets finish the night in second place, a half-game behind Atlanta in the NL East. Johan Santana opposes Carl Pavano at 1:10pm on Saturday.

Poem by Howard Megdal

Big Pelf goes six, bullpen goes three
Don't look now, K-Rod's thrown excellently
Wright's home run, Reyes' two hits take more steam
Out of ludicrous claim that they can't lead a team

SB Nation Coverage

* Traditional Recap
* Boxscore
* Amazin' Avenue Gamethread
* Twinkie Town Gamethread

Win Probability Added

Big winners: David Wright, +15.5% WPA, Mike Pelfrey, +9.9% WPA
Big losers: Jeff Francoeur, -5.5% WPA, Jesus Feliciano, -4.3% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Bay RBI double in fourth, +11.4% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Span leadoff home run, -10.1% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: +21.5% WPA
Total batter WPA: +28.5% WPA
GWRBI!: Jason Bay

Game Thread Roll Call

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