Mets 3, Braves 2: Jeff Francoeur Is The Winner

A great win for the Mets and a great moment for Jeff Francoeur. We give Frenchy a hard time here, not because we don't like him personally, but because he's really bad at baseball. Really bad. But we still root for him to do well, and after a game like tonight's you'd have to be made of stone to not be happy for him. The Mets needed this win to keep from falling 8.5 behind the Braves, and they trailed 1-0 and 2-1 before coming back to tie it both times. Francoeur's home run off Billy Wagner in the top of the ninth was certainly his biggest hit as a Met in what has been just a miserable season for him in a long string of miserable seasons. On his home turf, against his former team, that had to feel good, and it was a huge boost for the team.

What's more, Jerry Manuel admitted before the game that Francoeur was likely only in the lineup because of the hit he picked up in his final at-bat on Monday night. I laughed to no one in particular when Gary Cohen mentioned that tidbit early in tonight's broadcast, but it couldn't have worked out better for the Mets. They're still 6.5 games back with a long road yet to hoe, but for one night at least it was fun again to watch them play.

This was probably R.A. Dickey's wildest start since his debut on May 19; he walked four batters in both starts. He also hit a batter tonight and struck out just two. Moreover, three of the five hits he allowed were for extra bases: doubles by Jason Heyward and Omar Infante and a triple by Melky Cabrera. He threw first-pitch strikes to just 12 of 28 batters he faced. He did generate twice as many outs on the ground as in the air, and the scoreboard lit up just twice in his six innings.

The biggest non-Francoeur moment in the game might have been Bobby Cox lifting Derek Lowe for a pinch hitter in the bottom of the sixth with Lowe's pitch count at just 79. Matt Diaz popped out to Luis Castillo to strand the Melkman at third, and Kyle Farnsworth came on to allow the Mets to score the tying run in the top of the seventh. It was a questionable move by Cox at the time and extremely costly with the benefit of hindsight. Sucks for them, yay for us!

Mike Pelfrey takes on Kris Medlen on Wednesday as the Mets look to make something of this heroic victory. Mike Pelfrey will try to remember how not to be a terrible pitcher.

Poem by Howard Megdal

Stopped clock of hitting has his two moments
Wagner has game like peak-era Floyd Youmans
Dickey, the stopper (!) gives Mets what they need
And Larry, retired? In ninth, was indeed

SB Nation Coverage

* Traditional Recap
* Boxscore
* Amazin' Avenue Gamethread
* Talking Chop Gamethread

Win Probability Added

Big winners: Jeff Francoeur, +36.1% WPA, Manny Acosta, +24.1% WPA
Big losers: Angel Pagan, -11.0% WPA, Mike Hessman, -8.7% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Francoeur home run in ninth, +35.2% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Cabrera RBI triple in sixth, -23.1% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: +36.4% WPA
Total batter WPA: +13.6% WPA
GWRBI!: Jeff Francoeur

Game Thread Roll Call

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