For the ninth straight game the Mets were the first team to get on the board. It all started with two outs, another common occurrence during this streak. David Wright was the instigator, Ike Davis the equalizer. Wright ripped an inside fastball into the left field corner for a double. Ike finished it up with a soft liner to right to score Wright on a close play at home. Francisco Cervelli gave the umpire some heat, but thanks to a great slide by Wright, he just barely escaped the tag and put the Mets up 1-0. Bay followed with a pop out to end the mini-rally.
Both offenses went quiet after that, as both Takahashi and Vazquez were on tonight. Vazquez was mixing up his pitches well, painting both corners with his fastball and tossing a filthy curve all night.
Takahashi stayed one step ahead of Vazquez, though, as he was just as in control. As Barajas pointed out after Takahashi's last loss, the key for Hisanori's success is his ability to throw the fastball inside for strikes. Tonight he did just that and it set up his outside changeup perfectly. He had Yankees hitters off balance all night. Even after seeing the bases load up in the bottom of the sixth (see below), he managed to get Posada (two grand slams in a week) to chop out to Wright, who made a nice bare hand catch and throw to gun him down at first. Takahashi finished up with six shutout innings, allowing only four hits and two walks while striking out three.
Yet again tonight, the home plate umpire, Mike Reilly, was ATROCIOUS. The most inconsistent strike zone I've seen all year. Worse than C.B. Bucknor. To make matters worse, he appeared to be favoring the Yankees heavily.
Pedro Feliciano played as key a role tonight as anyone did. After Cervelli doubled off Dessens to lead off the bottom of the seventh, Feliciano came on and struck out Granderson, then induced ground balls from Gardner and Jeter to escape the jam. He also came back out and pitched the bottom of the eighth, keeping the Yankees off the board yet again.
Remember that post earlier about the Relentless Mets? Well, they were the Relentless Mets again tonight. Their bats were quiet for six innings, but that's about as long as you can keep this offense down. In the top of the eighth, Tejada walked to lead off. After failing to get two bunts down, exchanging some words with A-Rod, and fouling of some good pitches, Reyes doubled into the right field corner to put runners on second and third with none out. In the very next at bat, Pagan brought them in with a double down the left field line to make it 3-0. Score early and score late. A definite recipe for success.
They continued with that theme in the top of the ninth as Frenchy doubled with one out, Tejada singled him over to third, and Reyes drove him in with a soft liner over Cano's head to make it 4-0.
Unfortunately, K-Rod had to come on to get the save after Raul Valdes allowed runners to reach first and second after retiring the first batter of the inning. He did make it interesting, as he always does. He walked the first batter he faced, Brett Gardner, to load the bases. But he promptly struck out Jeter and got Swisher to pop out to end it.
Another very impressive win for the Mets. Eight straight wins, seven on the road, twelve of thirteen. Let me leave you with this bit of opinion. What's up with Darth Helmet, I mean Rick Moranis, no wait, Francisco Cervelli. Calm down buddy. You don't see anybody else going crazy over every strike, hit, walk, run, beer, pretzel, or shiny object in the stands. He's right up there with Victorino and Eckstein for me now.
Post Game 6/18/10 Mets 4 - Yankees 0
