The Mets got on the board first yet again tonight, but not before they got a big scare from Reyes. After Jose Reyes lead off with a single up the middle, Pagan poked a single into left to put runners on first and second with nobody out. This is where the scare comes in. Reyes took a big lead off second and appeared to be picked off by Westbrook. However, the throw to second couldn't be handled and Reyes dived back in safely. He immediately came up holding his hand and calling for the trainer. I'm thinking, "uh-oh, his finger is broken, out 4-6 weeks". But all turned out well as Reyes appeared to suffer only a cut.
After a strikeout by Wright, Big Ike came up and smashed a hard single to left to score Reyes and push Pagan to third. Franceour followed with a Sac fly to put the Mets up 2-0. After a single by Carter to push Ike to third, Henry Blanco hit a seeing eye single to left to push him home and put the Mets up 3-0. The next batter, Jesus Feliciano, also singled to left. Chip Hale waved Carter home, where he was gunned by a good margin. After tagging Carter out, Indians catcher Carlos Santana felt the need to slam the ball down. What's that all about?
The Indians got on the board in the bottom of the second. Hafner lead off with a single and was moved over to third after a ground out and a passed ball by Blanco (the knuckler didn't knuck, Blanco thought it would). Peralta drove him in with a two out single to make it 3-1. Dickey promptly excaped the inning without any further trouble.
The Indians would come right back and score again with two outs in the third. Shin-Soo Choo singled with one out and was moved over to second on a hard ground out to Ike Davis. Travis Hafner proceeded to hit a ball deep into the shift towards Ruben Tejada, who booted the ball and allowed Choo to score and close the gap to 3-2.
The Mets, relentless as they are these days, piled more runs on in top of the fourth. Feliciano lead it off with a walk and then Tejada did his usual thing by bunting Feliciano to second. Reyes came up and doubled on a shallow pop to left that couldn't be caught. With runners now on second and third (Feliciano had to hold in case the ball was caught), Westbrook walked Pagan intentionally and Wright drove in Feliciano with a fielder's choice to put the Mets up 4-2(failed double play, really), moving Reyes to third. Big Ike capped the rally with a single to right to make it 5-2.
The Indians got themselves back in the scoring column in the bottom of fifth. Shin-Soo Choo was in the center of it yet again. He singled to right to lead off and moved to third on a double into the right field corner by Carlos Santana. If not for Frenchy's arm, Choo would have scored. After a Hafner ground out to make it 5-3, Trickey Dickey buckled down and struck out the next two hitters to end the inning.
In the bottom of seventh, Cleveland pulled within 5-4 thanks to an error by the usually steady handed Pagan. With one out, Carlos Santana drilled a double to dead center off the top of the wall. However, when trying to the throw the ball back into the infield, Pagan dropped the ball allowing Santana to move to third. Hafner hit a high chopper to Reyes to push Santana across plate.
Keeping with the reoccurring theme of the Relentless Mets, in the top of the eighth and two outs, Tejada dunked a bloop single into left. Reyes drove him in with a triple to right-center to give the bullpen breathing room and extend the lead to 6-4. Stay hot, Jose. We all love it when you're the Reyes of old.
K-Rod was sporting a mighty good fastball tonight, touching 92 and 93 regularly while topping out at 94. With two outs and Choo on second (boy is he pesky), Hafner was up as the tying run. After throwing basically all fastballs to Hafner, the count went to 3-2 and K-Rod struck him out on a filthy changeup. Don't feel bad Haf. No one was hitting that.
It was definitely the Jose Reyes show tonight. He finished up by going 3-5 with two runs scored. But perhaps more importantly, he made several outstanding plays in the field to keep the Indians off the basepaths and prevent them from doing more scoring. Can't forget about Trickey Dickey, though. For the third straight night, the Mets' starter didn't have his best stuff. But Dickey buckled down and moved to 5-0. He is now officially the first Met to go 5-0 in his first season with the club since '99.
Way to be Mets! Second straight road sweep. Seven straight wins overall. Eleven of twelve. Now let's head in to the Bronx and take over first.
Post Game 6/17/10 Mets 6 - Cleveland 4
