One Down, Two to Go

Last night's game was probably my favorite of the season. Not because the Mets beat the Yankees on their home turf, although that is part of it, but because the Mets were the anti-Mets. They did everything well. They played the field, pitched, manufactured homers, and looked like a sound baseball team.

Wright, Beltran, and Cammy all made sparkling plays in the field to pick the team up and helped Pedro go eight innings. The Mets actually ran the bases well and did not strand runners at third base, and for those of you who missed the game, they were the first team in NL history to hit three sac flys in one inning. Have they even hit three all year coming into today? It is nice to watch a team execute and to be honest with you, it would have been OK if they lost and still executed. Of course I can say that now, but nothing is worse than watching your favorite team lose and lose because they refuse to help themselves win. If you get beat, then fine, you get beat. Shooting yourself in the foot in unacceptable. Forget their lack of one more bat in the middle of the order, they do need one, but their biggest current problem is execution. If they execute, they can go on a nice little streak and compete in the NL.

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Minor update:

• Not only did the Mets beat the Yanks last night, but the Tides beat the Clippers. Eric Valent seems to be benefiting from the extra hacks and went 2 for 4 with two runs scored, a triple, a homerun, two RBIs and a walk. But who needs offense when Jae Seo is on the mound? He continues to pitch great and went six inning, gave up seven hits, two earned runs, two walks, and struck out six. He gave up two homers for the only two runs and sits with a 5-2 record and a 3.18 ERA.
  
• Binghamton beat Erie 9-8. Mike Jacobs continues to tear the cover off the ball and went 2 for 4 with three runs scored, two homers, three RBIs, and one walk. Chase Lambin went 2 for 4 with one run scored, one double, one RBI, and one walk. Yusmeiro Petit went six innings, gave up eight hits, two runs, one walk, and struck out six. His ERA sits at 2.77.
  
• St. Lucie beat Daytona 6-3 behind a solid pitching performance by Phil Humber and huge game at the plate by Brett Harper. Harper went 2 for 4 with two runs scored, one homer, and four RBIs while Shawn Bowman hit his 12th homer of the year and knocked in two RBIs. Humber had his best game as a pro in my opinion and went seven innings, gave up three hits, one earned run, NO walks, and struck out 10, which was my favorite stat. It was his first double digit strikeout game as I pro I believe. With those two bad starts taken out, in ten games, he is 2-3 with a 3.02 ERA, 7.88 K/9, 3.92 K/BB, and 8.05 H/9.
  
• Lakewood beat Hagerstown 8-2. Not much happened.
  
• Huh? What is going on with the Kingsport team? For the third game out of four, they scored double digits in runs scored. They scored a season high eighteen runs against Bristol and won 18-4 and beat their previous high of 16 on opening day. Sean Henry went 3 for 5 with two runs scored, one homer, and five RBIs. Nick Evans is officially a favorite of The Metropolitans. For the second day in a row, he hit two homers. He went 3 for 5 with two runs scored, one walk and six RBIs. That is eleven RBIs between Henry and Evans for those of you keeping score at home.
  
• Brooklyn beat Aberdeen 6-5. Drew Butera made his pro debut and went 0 for 4 with three strikeouts. Ouch. Jonathan Malo es muy bueno. I do apologize for that, but he did go 3 for 4 with two runs scored, two doubles, and two RBIs.

Met starters did pretty good last night. All levels combined, Met starting pitchers thrown 38 innings and posted a 2.37 ERA, 9.00 K/9, 7.34 H/9, 2.84 W/9, and a 3.17 K/BB. On top of that, I am going to go out on a limb and say that no minor league system has four starting pitchers as good as Humber, Petit, Pelfrey (when he signs), and Hernandez. Throw on top of that the likes of Bannister, MacLane, Lindstrom, Durkin, Seo, Scobie, and Hyde and the Mets have a pretty impressive pitching rich farm system with several potential stars and front of the rotation guys. That is extremely impressive considering what they gave up last year.

Is Dougie Mientkiewicz waking up?

Ryan Zimmerman appears to be warming up to pro ball pretty well. He went 3 for 5 yesterday with one run scored, one double, one homer, and four RBIs. In four games he is batting .471 with two homers and six RBIs.

I do not understand the purpose of a first half champion, but I do not understand a lot of things. However, the Hagerstown Suns will face off with the Lexington Legends for a one game playoff to decide the first half champion. Gaby Hernandez gets to show off a little more against Troy Patton in what should be a great game.

Last night, when Bernie Williams dropped Reyes' fly ball, it was a perfect example of why Mike Cameron is worth a blue chip prospect from other teams. Defense up the middle is invaluable when you are talking about a close playoff race.

Is it not getting weird on Beltran's propensity to homer during Pedro's starts?

Omar on Beltran:

"Believe me," Mets GM Omar Minaya was saying last night, leaning against a wall deep in the bowels of Yankee Stadium, "you haven't even seen a little bit of what this guy is going to do for us."

We know it, but we are patiently waiting.