METS 4If this series between the Mets and Brewers is a preview of things to come in October, then it is sure to be a very memorable series. With Johan Santana, again, struggling to hold off his oppenent and the Mets struggling to figure out Brewers starter Ben Sheets, the Mets somehow found a way, through it all, to beat Milwaukee 4-2 on Labor Day.
The Mets didn't get off to a good start in this one. After Jose Reyes led off with a double, Dan Murphy tried to bunt him over on the first pitch he saw, but he bounced it right in front of Sheets for the out. Minutes later, Reyes was caught stealing third and was tagged for the second out of the inning, ending any hopes that the Mets had of scoring early.
In the bottom of the first, the Brewers hit Santana hard. After Rickie Weeks hit a hard liner to right center for the first out, J.J. Hardy trippled to left. What happened here is key, while trying to retrive to ball in left Murphy slipped and fell on the warning track, enabling Hardy to keep chugging to third base. Moments later, Ryan Braun drilled a double to left center bringing in Hardy to give Milwaukee a 1-0 lead.
From here it was a total pitching duel as Santana and Sheets traded zeros into the sixth inning. Santana was effective after that first inning. His final line reads six innings of seven hit ball, two runs and ten strikeouts. As for Sheets he was great pitching five shutout innings surrendering only two hits. He looked like he would complete a two hit shutout, because he had the Mets completely baffled. But Sheets had to leave the game after the fifth, because of a groin injury.
Then, the Brewers bullpen imploded. The Brewers used three pitchers in the seventh, Brian Shouse, David Riske and Mitch Stetter, and neither one could get the job done.
First Carlos Beltran doubled to center field and moved to third on a ground out by Damion Easley. With two out in the inning, Riske came into pitch for the Brewers and it was a big mistake by manager Ned Yost. Marlon Anderson, in his first game off the DL, walked. Fernando Tatis would also walk to load the bases. Stetter had to come in, and he threw it away literally. His wild pitch allowed Beltran to score the Mets first run of the game to cut the Milwaukee lead to 2-1.
Nelson Figueroa came in for Santana and pitched a easy seventh inning to set things up for the Mets in the eighth against Eric Gagne.
Gagne is no longer the same pitcher he was during his LA Dodger days and it showed here. In the past Gagne would have blown away a rookie like Dan Murphy, but the rook fought off Gagne's pitches and eventually dropped the ball down the third baseline from a double. Gagne got David Wright swinging at strike three. But in an at-bat to Carlos Delgado Gagne completely failed. He threw two off-speed pitches down and away to Delgado, both of which he swung and fouled off to put himself in an 0-2 count. Then Gagne tried to go upstairs to Delgado with the fastball, and it was a huge error. Delgado lifted the pitch three rows deep in the right field stands to give the Mets a 3-2 lead.
Beltran would them single to right and Ryan Chruch would double to right center to drive home Beltran, giving the Mets insurance.
The combination of Pedro Feliciano and Joe Smith struck out the side in the Brewer eighth and Luis Ayala had an easy ninth to clinch the victory for the Mets. The Mets now wait to see what happens in D.C. this afternoon as the Nationals hold a 6-3 lead on Philadelphia in the sixth inning. If Philly loses the Mets will have a two game lead for first in the East.
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