Perez Shows Some Pride and the Offense Comes along for the Ride

It was with great trepidation that I awaited Ollie's start today. With his helter skelter pitching the last month and the offense not playing up to it's talent, I had no idea which team would show up to play today. Luckily the team came to play.

Ollie was very good for most of the game. He mixed his pitches up and had the fastball working today. He only gave up 1 hit thru the 1st 5 innings and seemed to be focused and on a mission. But, then Ollie does what Ollie does. He lost focus and soon had given up 3 runs and allowed the Reds to sniff another melt down from Ollie. But he managed to get thru 6 innings with the lead and got his 3rd win of the season. He stuck out 8, hit 1 batter, and walked another 4. Typical Ollie outing. But this time he kept it from spiraling out of control and the Mets won the game.

The offense did it's best to keep Ollie ahead in the game. They gave him 3 early runs and that appeared to help Ollie. Beltran had 2 hits and 3 RBI and continues to wake up from his long slumber at the plate. Church and Beltran went deep in the 5th inning for 2 more runs, which Ollie surrendered back in the top of the 6th inning. That was the 7th home run for Ryan, and he now leads the team. Reyes and Castillo had multiple hits, and David Delgado and Easley all had a hit too. Castillo left the game because he hurt his Quad, probably running around the bases. It's not something he's done much of this year. So add a bad leg to go with his bad Knee, and the brilliance of Omar's 4 year contract comes into better focus. Another fat contract for one of Omar's broken down buddies. If this game proved one thing, it's that the Mets have issues with Breaking ball pitchers. Cuerto was getting his fastball pounded, but Arroyo was lights out with his curve last night. Can Doc be hired to throw batting practice?

The defense was good too. Church had a nice day catching everything hit his way. He even caught a fly ball in the corner as be bounced off the wall. Reyes and Beltran were on their game and Delgado and David stayed out of trouble. Schneider still can't catch, but none of his drops and misses made a diffence. Maybe he'll get the hang of actually catching the ball sometime this year.

Now on to the Nationals. The Mets need to sweep them and set the tone for the Yankees this weekend. The Mets need to get on a role and get the team focused on catching the Marlins and gaining the lead in the NL East. Here's hoping for a hot week and a long winning streak to end next week after the Mets leave the Yankees bleeding and battered.