The Orioles pitching staff suffered from a terrible case of whiplash today as Mets hitters went deep four times in the game.
It started from the very first inning, with David Wright launching a two run shot to left center and then three batters later, The Animal (Chris Carter, for those of you who have been living under a rock recently) launched a three run shot of his own to stake the Mets to a quick five run lead.
Pelfrey didn't have his best stuff today and it showed. He had trouble hitting his groove as he let up two runs in the bottom of the first on a sacrifice fly by Luke Scott and an RBI single to Adam Jones. An inning later, Pelfrey managed to escape with only an RBI sac fly to Miguel Tejada after seeing runners reach second and third with only one out and the heart of the Orioles lineup coming up. Pelfrey would then go on to pitch the next four innings without allowing a run. That's the sign of a true ace, giving your team a chance to win even without your best stuff.
In the top of the third, Alex Cora put the Mets back up 6-3 with an RBI single to score Jason Bay. Cora would finish with two RBI on the day after tacking on a sac fly of his own in the top of the seventh. In the top of the fifth, the Mets saw Jason Bay finally get his fourth home run of the season with a solo shot. Bay finished up with a mighty impressive day, going 4-4 with four runs scored and the solo home run. Bay's average coming into the day was .272 and at the end of the day it was .284. WOW. Let me tell you, Bay has sneaky speed, too. Didn't think he had a chance at beating out the grounder to third in the ninth, but sure enough, he beat it out to complete the 4-4 day.
Oh yea, by the way, David Wright hit his second home run of the day in the sixth off the lefty Mark Hendrickson. This one was a sweet stroke on an inside fastball that ended up deposited a few rows back in straight away left. Is it possible for Wright to NOT hit a lefty? Geez. Keep on truckin' dude.
The Mets bullpen took over for Pelfrey to start the seventh, with Mejia quickly getting the first two batters out before letting up an single to Luke Scott, a wild pitch and then an RBI single to Adam Jones. Mejia got the next batter, Adam Wieters, to ground out to end the inning and limit the damage. Ryota Igarashi and Raul Valdes then combined for two scoreless innings to close it out.
Impressive series and impressive win for the Mets against the thoroughly unimpressive Orioles. The win completed the sweep (first time since '08 they swept on the road), raised the Mets' road record to 11-18 on the season and 35-28 overall. Not to mention Pelfrey is now 9-1 on the season. Great job, boys. Now it's on to Cleveland for more of the same.
Post Game 6/13/10 Mets 11 - Baltimore 4
