Career Mets killer and Florida Marlins ace Josh Johnson did not have his A+ stuff but he had enough to lead the home team over the beaten, battered and bruised New York Mets Wednesday night at Land Shark Stadium ,5-3. Johnson, who is 7-0 with a 2.30 ERA in 9 career starts vs. the Mets, won despite allowing 9 hits over 6 innings.“I was a little inconsistent, but we got the W,” he said. “My slider is not there right now at times. My changeup comes and goes. It’s just one of those things during the season that you’ve got to get through.” Marlins SS Hanley Ramirez had 3 hits to pace the winners, while Mets 3B Fernando Tatis had 3 to lead the Mets. NY has lost 5 in a row while the clubs disabled list number grew to 13 with LH SP Oliver Perez having season ending surgery scheduled earlier in the day .
Mets starting pitcher Mike Pelfrey could not sustain an early 2-0 lead in the 3rd and had major issues with his control. Pelfrey went 5 and 2/3rd innings while allowing 11 hits and 5 walks. He was charged with 5 runs, needing 118 pitches to get into the 6th.(71 in the first 3 innings) “Maybe they like fastballs,” he said. “I like to throw fastballs. Tonight they were patient at the plate. They made me throw it over the middle, and they hit me hard.” CF Cody Ross tripled in 2 runs in the 3rd while C Ronny Paulino’s 2 run homer plated 2 in the 5th. The clubs exchanged out producing runs in the 6th(Mets sac fly from Cory Sullivan, Florida 1B Jorge Cantu fielder’s choice) for the final runs.
The Marlins bullpen handled the rest and we saw 3 great arms in a row in the 7-8-9th innings. LH Dan Meyer(17 holds, 2 Ks), ex Met Matt Lindstrom(5 holds,1 K) and finally, new closer Leo Nunez earning his 16th save with 2 Ks.
Star of the Game: Josh Johnson— The Wilpon’s do not own the Mets., the talented righty does! Johnson is unbeaten in 8 starts vs. the NL team from New York! One of the Marlins hitting stars said it best post game,“Any time he goes out there, we have so much confidence in him, we expect him to shut them out and not give up any hits,” teammate Cody Ross said. “He battled through some tough innings.”
Mets starting line-up:
1- CF Angel Pagan
2- 2B Luis Castillo
3- 1B Daniel Murphy
4- RF Jeff Francoeur
5- LF Cory Sullivan
6- 3B Fernando Tatis
7- C Brian Schneider
8- SS Anderson Hernandez
9- Pitcher
Game Notes: Johnson is an incredible 19-2 vs. the NL East in his career and even more amazing 13-0 in the past two seasons!!! However, he is 13-12 vs. the other ML teams….. Pelfrey is 1-6 vs. the Marlins, losing six straight decisions… The incredible Florida offense has 10 or more hits in 18 of 21 games!!!!… OF Gary Sheffield missed the game with a back issue…. Tim Redding, Thursday’s Mets starter, is 1-5 with 8.73 ERA in 7 starts vs. the Marlins, dating back to 2007…. Tatis has a career .667 batting average vs. Johnson(8 for 12)
Next Game:
Thursday, series finale of 3 game set vs. Marlins at Land Shark Stadium
1:10 pm
Mets RH Tim Redding(1-4,6.10) vs. Marlins RH Anibal Sanchez(2-4,4.97)
