Mike Pelfrey was great for his 2nd consecutive start while the New York Mets(48-51) executed offensively vs one of the better pitchers in the NL, leading them to a 4-0 victory over the Colorado Rockies(54-46) Tuesday night at Citi-Field in Queens. 2B Luis Castillo, RF Jeff Francoeur, C Brian Schneider and 1B Daniel Murphy all drove in a run while Pelfrey pitched into the 7th vs the Wild Card leader in the National League. “It feels good to win, and that starts with our pitching,” said 3B David Wright, who had two hits. “Yesterday our bullpen was fantastic and today Mike Pelfrey threw about as well as Mike Pelfrey can throw.”
Pelfrey(8-6,4.72) was great and ran his scoreless innings streak against the Rockies to 20. The big right hander was backed by some solid defense, led by Murphy who turned a big 3-6-1 double play in the fourth. Pelfrey escaped bases loaded jams in the 4th and 6th, finished with the following stat line: 6 1/3 innings, 7 hits allowed with 5 Ks and 3 walks. He threw 115 pitches(71 strikes) and has surprising groundball/fly ball split of 6-8. The winning pitcher, who topped out at 96 mph on the gun, talked about the new positive atmosphere around his team“Everybody knows what we need to do,” Pelfrey said. “Confidence-wise, we feel if we show up here you can put money on us. I don’t know if you could have said that two weeks ago.”
The Mets got all the runs they needed in the 2nd when Francoeur drove in Murphy, who doubled to lead off the inning. Francoeur now has 16 rbi in 14 Mets games! NY plated single runs in the 3rd & 4th, after a single by SS Alex Cora to start the 3rd and a sacrifice from Pelfrey, Castillo knocked him in with a single of 2nd base , the Mets led 2-0. C Brian Schneider hit a sacrifice fly to score Murphy after walk and error moved him to 3rd,making it 3-0 after 4. Long Island native and Rockies All Star Jason Marqis(12-7,3.47) was done after 6, allowing 7 hits and 3 runs(1 earned) while striking out 3 and walking 1.
Pedro Feliciano(19 holds,2.63) continued his strong campain with 5 outs of hitless relief, while getting 3 huge strikeouts.The Mets added a big run in the 8th on after 2 walks and a single by Murphy. Castillo was clearly out at the plate(Mets SNY announcers pointed this out) but called safe by home plate umpire Lance Vanover. Rockies manager Jim Tracy came out to argue and was ejected. Sean Green pitched the ninth for the Mets and ended the game with a bang when he induced Rockies OF Ryan Spilborghs to ground into a double play to end the game and give the suddenly streaking Mets a victory.
Star of the Game: Pelfrey- Pitching like a top 3 starter and needs to sustain this for the last two months of the campaign. Kid has talent, great to see it coming together.
Mets starting line-up:
1- CF Angel Pagan
2- 2B Luis Castillo
3- 3B David Wright
4- 1B Daniel Murphy
5- RF Jeff Francoeur
6- LF Cory Sullivan
7- C Brian Schneider
8- SS Alex Cora
9- Pitcher
Game Notes: Feliciano has not allowed an earned run in 22 2/3 innings at Citifield this year…. The Mets are 20-2 vs the Rockies at home since 2003… Wright had 2 hits for the 3rd straight game and is hitting .400 in his last 7 games… Mets COO Jeff Wilpon held a pre-game press conference and issued a public apology to well respected NY Daily News reporter Adam Rubin regarding Monday’s deplorable press conference firing disgraced ex-Mets VP for player development Tony Bernazard. He stated that Rubin “did nothing wrong” and that he was very sorry about what happened Monday. Wilpon put in a call to Rubin and hopes to apoligize in person and also expressed hope that Rubin could talk to Minaya as well. The big news out of the presser? Both Wilpons are not happy with the direction the team is headed although Jeff backed Minaya as his GM, claiming they can get through this PR disaster… Mets turned 3 double plays… Wright, Cora and Murphy had 2 hits to lead NY… Castillo is hitting .400 for the month of July
Next Game:
Wednesday, game 3 of 4 game series vs the Rockies at Citi-Field
7:10 pm
Mets LH Johan Santana(11-8,3.12) vs. Rockies RH Jason Hammel(5-5,4.28)
