Mets 7, Astros 4: Justin Turner Overdrive

For the third straight game, the Astros took an early lead on the Mets, leading 2-0 after four innings as the Mets struggled mightily against Aneury Rodriguez in the early going.

Houston's first run came on a Chris Johnson single in the second inning, and their second scored on a Jason Michaels double in the fourth. The fourth inning could have been a lot worse for Chris Capuano and the Mets if not for a diving catch by Jason Bay with two on and two out. Bay had to run a long way and made a snow-cone catch to end the inning.

It was Bay who reached base to lead off the fifth inning on a pop up to the pitcher's mound that Carlos Lee tried and failed to catch.  Daniel Murphy singled, and Justin Turner was then asked to bunt but failed to do so. With two strikes he instead swung the bat and doubled down the left field line, scoring both Bay and Murphy to tie the game.

Jason Pridie kept the scoring going on a single to bring in Turner and was sacrificed to second on a bunt by Capuano. Jose Reyes walked, and on the ensuing fly ball to center by Josh Thole, Pridie advanced to third. The Astros then decided to keep on giving the Mets free bases. Reyes took off for second base, and the Astros tried to throw him out, completely ignoring that Pridie had broken for home as soon as J.R. Towles threw to second base. Pridie stole home without a throw, and Reyes was safe by a mile at second.

Capuano pitched a scoreless fifth, but with his pitch count at 94, that was the end of his afternoon. In total, Capuano struck out six and walked three. Capuano appeared to have some sort of issue during the game. The Mets had the bullpen warming very early in the game, and Capuano was talking to Dan Warthen and the training staff when he wasn't on the field. Hopefully there's not an injury of significance there. 

The Mets kept the scoring going in the sixth inning with Jason Bay once again reaching base to lead off the inning. Daniel Murphy then drew an uber-gritty three-pitch walk thanks to the umpire, and apparently the Astros, not realizing what had happened because the umpire had assigned an extra ball to the pitcher. Justin Turner stepped up to the plate, was not asked to bunt, and hit a three-run bomb to left field to put the Mets out in front 7-2.

Taylor Buchholz threw the sixth and seventh and was alright outside of the solo home run he gave up to Clint Barmes. Terry Collins decided to make things interesting in the eighth, bringing in lefty specialist Tim Byrdak to face two righ-handed hitters, both of whom unsurprisingly reached base. Jason Isringhausen came in to get out of the jam, and he allowed one inherited runner to score but escaped without any further damage.

Francisco Rodriguez pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to seal the victory for the Mets, and they've now won three series in a row.

The Mets return to Queens tomorrow night to play the Marlins at 7:10 pm with Mike Pelfrey on the mound for the Mets and Josh Johnson starting for the Marlins.

SB Nation Coverage

* Traditional Recap
* Boxscore
* Amazin' Avenue Gamethread
* The Crawfish Boxes Gamethread

Win Probability Added

Big winners: Justin Turner, +37.4% WPA
Big losers: Tim Byrdak, -7.4% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Justin Turner double in the fifth, +28.3% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Jason Michaels double in the fourth, -11.5%WPA
Total pitcher WPA: +4.4% WPA
Total batter WPA: +45.6% WPA
GWRBI!: Justin Turner

Game Thread Roll Call

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