Happy Recap: Mets 5 Astros 3

This game will be remembered for Carlos Beltran. He had the game winning hit and an unbelievable game saving catch in the 14th. With a man on third Beltran ran up the hill in centerfield and made a basket catch just shy of the warning track, about 430 feet from home plate. An incredible catch. Made even better by the fact that he later drove in the winning run. His experience in center field from his time playing with the Astros may have helped him with this one.

But it never would have gotten that far were it not for the bullpen. The bullpen was great pitching 10 shutout innings, allowing only 5 hits:
Pedro Feliciano did a great job in the bottom of the 9th to strike out Berkman on three pitches with two men on. But Willie didn't double switch him into the game so he only got that one batter out of him.

In the 12th Schoeneweis got in trouble by falling asleep and letting a runner steal third with one out. Then he walked a man (irrelevant!) so Willie went to Joe Smith. Smith has had trouble with first batters and he hit Biggio (grazed) to load the bases, but Smith nutted up and struck out Hunter Pence.

Then in the 14th Beltran saved the day. Smith hit another batter, than a sacrifice and a groundout but the runner on third with two outs. After a walk, Luke Scott hit one deep to center field and Beltran made the catch.

Aaron Sele pitched two good innings.

Billy Wagner spent the whole game in the bullpen, the last two innings by himself, and at the time I didn't think Willie should save him, but he did, and it worked out as Wagner got the save.



The Mets did miss a lot of chances:
In the 8th Beltran struck out with two men on and two outs. He is batting .125 with runners in scoring position and two outs this season.

In the 9th the Mets had another chance but LoDuca got thrown out trying to go to third on a single to center by Green. He shouldn't have been trying to make it. With two outs late in the game you probably need another hit anyway, so you might as well play station to station, hoping you can score from second on a single by the next guy, or a home run better still.

Top 12th the much maligned Julio Franco singled with Green on second, Green rightly stopped (he would have been nailed at home) but Reyes couldn't get the run home with an out, then Gotay made out also.

And here's what I wrote while watching the first 8 innings of the game, seems irrelevant now but this is what you would have read if this game had ended in 9 innings:

Tom Glavine doing what he always does. With Hunter Pence on first he walked Carlos Lee (almost on purpose) to get to Morgan Ensberg. Then he got Ensberg in the hole and on 2-2 threw one off the plate, then bitched about the call. On 3-2 his sinker got too much of the plate and Ensberg crushed it for a double. Then Burke hit one past the ancient Green to make it 3-0.

But the Mets got two of those runs back in the next inning on a home run by Delgado.

And Glavine did what Williams could not, he got a quick inning right after the Mets scored those two runs for him. And that was all Glavine gave up, he really settled down after that one bad inning.

The Mets tied the game on a home run by Wright but couldn't push another run across until the 17th inning. And it's worth mentioning that the game-winning rally was started with a walk by Reyes, something that has become too rare recently.



But this was an absolutely huge win for the Mets. This is the type of game great teams win. Teams that win championships look back on games like this and remember them as turning points or launching pads.

Side note: My DVR which I normally set for an inordinate length of time cut out after the top of the 15th. Thankfully I got to see Beltran's catch.