The Mets are officially on a tear. With their 6-4 win over the Indians tonight, the Mets have won seven in a row and 11 of their last 12. They are 12-2 in June and are 18-5 since May 22.
Once again, the Mets tore the cover off the ball, recording double-digit hits in their fourth straight game. The Mets got it going—no pun intended—right off the bat, scoring three runs off Jake Westbrook in the first inning.
They sent eight men to the plate and recorded six hits. The RBI in the inning came from Ike Davis on a single, Jeff Francoeur on a sacrifice fly, and Henry Blanco on a single. They could’ve had more, but Chris Carter was thrown out at the plate trying to score on a Jesus Feliciano base hit, as he didn’t slide or take out the catcher.
On the mound for the Mets was 35-year-old knuckleballer R.A. Dickey, trying to win five of his first six starts with the Mets. He gave up runs in the second and third innings—a Jhonny Peralta RBI single and Ruben Tajada fielding error, respectively—cutting the Mets’ lead to 3-2.
But just like the Mets have been doing during this entire road trip, they got the runs right back.
In the fourth, Jesus Feliciano lead off with a walk, and Ruben Tajada moved him to second on a bunt. Jose Reyes doubled Feliciano to third on a pop fly, and after Angel Pagan was intentionally walked to load the bases, David Wright drove in a run with a fielder’s choice groundout. Ike Davis followed with a single, extending the Mets’ lead to 5-2.
In the fifth, the Indians got a run back off of Dickey on a Travis Hafner run-scoring groundout. Dickey’s knuckleball wasn’t as effective as his last start early on, but it got better late in his outing. He went six, as he has in all five starts, allowing three runs (two earned) on seven hits, and he walked two and struck out seven.
His catcher though, albeit a different one in Henry Blanco, had trouble catching his knuckler again. He committed two passed balls, just like Rod Barajas in his last start, but it didn’t effect the outcome.
The Mets had been playing fantastic defense leading up to this game, where they made two errors, but they also made some nice plays, especially Jose Reyes. Not only did he do it with his glove, he also did it with his bat.
Reyes went 3-for-5, with a single, double, and huge run-scoring triple in the eighth. After the Indians scored a run to inch to within 5-4 in the seventh, with a run off Pedro Feliciano, Reyes brought in Ruben Tejada with his triple in the eighth to make it 6-4, a huge insurance run for Francisco Rodriguez.
Once again, Rodriguez made it interesting. It’s how he has to do things, it seems. After Trevor Crowe led off and struck out, Shin-Soo Choo singled and stole second base. Rodriguez, though, blew rookie catcher Carlos Santana away with a blistering 94-mph fastball, his hardest thrown pitch of the season. He followed that up by striking out a home run bat, the tying-run Travis Hafner to end the game.
The Mets are the hottest team in baseball right now and just refuse to lose. They have gotten to 10 games over .500 and will head to Yankee Stadium as hot as they’ve been since the All-Star break in 2008.
The Yankees have lost two games in a row, and the Mets will have their two top pitchers going in the series.
NL East standings (top 3 teams)
Atlanta 39-28
NY Mets 38-28 (1/2)
Philadelphia 34-30 (3 1/2)
Next series probable pitchers
June 18
New York Mets: Hisanori Takahashi (2010: 5-2, 3.48 ERA) vs. New York Yankees: Javier Vazquez (2010: 6-5, 5.43 ERA)
June 19
New York Mets: Mike Pelfrey (2010: 9-1, 2.39 ERA) vs. New York Yankees: Phil Hughes (2010: 9-1, 3.11 ERA)
June 20
New York Mets: Johan Santana (2010: 5-3, 3.13 ERA) vs. New York Yankees: CC Sabathia (2010: 7-3, 4.00 ERA)
Upcoming schedule
New York Mets
June 18-20 @ New York Yankees
June 22-24 vs. Detroit Tigers
New York Yankees
June 18-20 vs. New York Mets
June 21-23 @ Arizona Diamondbacks
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