Thursday Morning Applesauce: Mets Take Rubber Game, Wheeler Throws A Gem

Yesterday was one of those great days to be a Mets fan. Every game in our division went the way that would see us gain the most ground, every affiliate in the farm system managed a win, and the Mets managed to defeat the big hitting Pirates in the rubber game of their series behind an impressive performance from Jon Niese (the box can be found here). It's nice to see Niese bouncing back after he got absolutely shelled in Canadia. Jeremy Hefner will be the next Mets pitcher to take the mound, here's a little hometown puff piece giving you a little more detail on his route to the majors.

Niese and Hefner won't be the only Mets pitchers we talk about today though. The Mets had a pair of studs going in the minor leagues yesterday. Domingo Tapia took the hill for Savannah and was solid, but he was certainly outshone by Carlos Beltran Zack Wheeler and his stellar outing. Wheeler was actually good enough that he was the focus of Minor League Ball's Prospect of the Day feature this morning.

Terry Collins might not want to send Ike Davis down to the minors to try to break his slump, but in the end he may have to. Hopefully Ike starts seeing his balls drop in for hits and this can all be avoided.

Former Mets Ron Darling, Mookie Wilson, and Tim Teufel will be doing some work in the community today. The trio will be lending their time to habitat for humanity. Rumor has it that selfish former Met Carlos Beltran decided to build schools instead. Jerk..

Around MLB:

As hinted earlier, it was a pretty good day for the Metsies within the division. The last place Phillies were the only other team in the division to win last night, defeating the first place Gnats 4-1. Ground gained...

The second place not so Braves were also beaten yesterday, but they suffered the loss in painful walk-off fashion. Somewhere Larry Jones shed a single tear...

The tadpoles rounded out the losing ways yesterday, dropping a game to their expansion buddies from Colorado. That loss sees them drop into a third place tie with the Mets. The anchovies did get some good news though, as Juan Carlos Leo Nunez Oviedo will soon be allowed back into the United States. When he arrives he can begin his 8 week unpaid vacation.

We've mentioned Carlos Beltran a few time this morning already, so we might as well update you on what he was really up to last night. In typical selfish fashion, Beltran spoiled the Padres night.

Speaking of selfish players, there's a certain other blog out there that always bashes "Afraud" for padding his stats when games aren't close. He did it again last night, homering twice as the Yankees stayed a game in front of the Red Sox in the race for dead last in the AL East.

Remember the freakish injury epidemic that the Mets seemingly went through in 2009 and 2010? It appears that Milwaukee fans are going to be witness to one of those types of seasons.

Finally for today, Fangraphs takes a look at Neftali Feliz and his struggles to dominate this season. With the Mejia bullpen/starter talk starting up again it seems like anything well researched on Feliz should be must read material.